A resident of Omsk was sentenced to 15 years for setting fire to cars with the letter Z

A court in Omsk sentenced local resident Anton Smolyaninov to 15 years in prison on charges of terrorism. This was reported by the press service of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs.

According to the investigation, in the fall of 2022, a 46-year-old engineer from Omsk, Smolyaninov, set fire to several cars decorated in the form of the letter Z – a semi-official symbol of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The investigation also indicates that in December 2022, he tried to set fire to a transformer station that supplies residential buildings, industrial facilities, and an anti-tuberculosis dispensary.

As noted in the message of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Smolyaninov allegedly set fires “in order to frighten the population of the Omsk region and influence the decision” to end the war in Ukraine. The law enforcement agency does not specify whether he admitted his guilt.

The engineer will spend the first five years of his sentence in prison, then he will be transferred to a high-security colony, according to the military court’s decision.

• After the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, military enlistment offices, police departments, buildings of state administrations and receptions of “United Russia” began to be set on fire all over Russia, as well as sabotage on railways. After the announcement of mobilization in September 2022, the number of such attacks increased. Detainees accused of arson are most often charged with articles of terrorism, and not with intentional damage to someone else’s property, as it was before.