TL;DR
Get smart everyday buys delivered free with Prime
- Fast, free delivery on millions of items
- Prime Video, Amazon Music and more included
- Member-only deals all year
A Moscow court ordered the arrests of Denis Yeskov and Anatoly Nagornov, administrators of the railway photography site RailGallery. They face a charge carrying five to 10 years in prison; investigators allege they accessed a trade secret and published information from a critical infrastructure facility. The site is inaccessible, and details of the alleged conduct and its consequences have not been made public in the report.
A Moscow court has ordered the arrest of Denis Yeskov and Anatoly Nagornov, administrators of RailGallery, a website for railway enthusiasts, in a case involving alleged interference with critical information infrastructure. The charge carries a possible prison sentence of five to 10 years; investigators allege the men accessed and copied protected information and posted it on the site.
The press service of Moscow’s courts reported on October 16 that the Dorogomilovsky District Court had ordered the two men arrested. Case files published on the court’s website indicate the order was made on October 14. The charge is based on a Russian criminal statute concerning unlawful interference with critical information infrastructure that causes serious consequences.
According to investigators, Yeskov and Nagornov unlawfully obtained access to a trade secret belonging to an organization, copied information stored at what investigators described as a critical infrastructure facility of the Russian Federation, and published the material on RailGallery. The report does not specify the organization, identify the information, or detail the alleged serious consequences. These are allegations in a criminal case; the source material does not report a court finding of guilt.
RailGallery stopped loading, according to the railway-focused Telegram channel “1520. All About Railways,” which noticed the outage on the evening of October 15. The site remained inaccessible at the time of the report. The site’s editorial board also confirmed the administrators’ detentions in a statement circulated on Telegram, while saying it lacked enough information to explain what happened or determine the site’s future.
A Railway Archive Faces an Uncertain Future
The arrests put the administrators of a specialist railway resource at risk of long prison terms and have left the site’s users without access to its collection. RailGallery was used not only to share photographs: the channel “1520. All About Railways” described it as a broad database on the history and operation of railway equipment in several countries. Its outage may affect access to records assembled by contributors, though the report does not say whether the site’s data has been lost or could be restored.
The case also draws attention to the boundaries between publishing railway material and information authorities regard as protected. Investigators allege that the administrators copied material from a critical infrastructure facility, but the reported details do not establish what was published, how it was obtained, or how it caused serious consequences. Those unanswered points matter to understanding both the legal case and the practical implications for the site’s users.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
From TrainPix to RailGallery
RailGallery began in 2022, after the popular railway photography site TrainPix shut down. Independent Russian outlet Mediazona reported that TrainPix was created by Ukrainians, who announced its closure following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Its administrators deleted the site’s archive and urged support for the Ukrainian army, according to that reporting.
In August 2022, Yeskov said RailGallery’s community had restored about 150,000 photographs from TrainPix’s archive over six months—roughly half of it, by his account. By the end of that year, more than 3,200 users had registered and posted 194,000 photographs, including 161,500 restored images. Those figures were reported as historical totals; they do not establish the size or current condition of RailGallery’s archive.
RailGallery images have also appeared in reporting beyond enthusiast communities. In 2023, the Dossier Center published an investigation about an armored train that Vladimir Putin presumably uses and included a photograph sourced from RailGallery. The investigation described communications antennas on the train cars and three locomotives pulling the train. Whether Putin actually rides the train shown remains unknown, according to the source material.
“The administrators copied information stored “in a critical infrastructure facility of the Russian Federation” and posted it on their site.”
— Investigators, as summarized in the court reporting
railway enthusiast model train set
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
Key Details of the Case Remain Unknown
The report does not name the organization whose trade secret was allegedly accessed, describe the copied information, or explain what investigators mean by serious consequences. It also does not provide the defendants’ responses, say whether they have entered pleas, or give details about the evidence and procedural timetable. The charge and investigators’ account should not be treated as proof of guilt.
RailGallery’s current status is also unresolved. The site was inaccessible after the arrests, but the available information does not establish whether the outage was caused by the detentions, a technical issue, or another action. The editorial board said it could not yet say whether the site would continue operating or who might take over management.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
Court Proceedings and Site Status
The immediate legal development is the court-ordered arrest of Yeskov and Nagornov. The source material does not give a date for a further hearing or trial, so the next procedural step and timetable remain unclear. Further court records or statements from investigators, the defendants, or their representatives could clarify the allegations and the status of the case.
For RailGallery users, the next practical question is whether the site can be restored or managed by others. Its editorial board said it did not yet know whether normal operations could be maintained. Until the board or another responsible party provides an update, the site’s future and the availability of its archive remain uncertain.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
Key Questions
Who was arrested in the RailGallery case?
Moscow’s Dorogomilovsky District Court ordered the arrest of Denis Yeskov and Anatoly Nagornov, identified as administrators of the railway photography site RailGallery.
What are they accused of doing?
Investigators allege that they unlawfully accessed a trade secret, copied information stored at a Russian critical infrastructure facility, and published it on RailGallery. The report does not identify the information or the organization involved.
What prison sentence could they face?
The reported charge carries a possible sentence of five to 10 years in prison. That is the penalty specified for the charge, not a sentence imposed in this case.
Is RailGallery still online?
No. The railway-focused Telegram channel “1520. All About Railways” reported that the site stopped loading on the evening of October 15 and remained inaccessible at the time of the report. The reason for the outage and the site’s future have not been established.
Have the administrators been found guilty?
The source material reports a charge and court-ordered arrests, not a finding of guilt. Investigators’ claims remain allegations unless established through the legal process.
Source: rss
Halloween Picks
halloween
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
