In Chita, 13 people received from four to 23 years in the sabotage case
A military court in Chita sentenced a group of 13 people to terms of four to 23 years in the case of sabotage and preparation for a terrorist attack. This was reported by the press service of the court on Wednesday, October 2.
Egor Kusonets, Vladyslav Turgushev, Artem Begoyan, Danyl Volobuev, Yevgeny Elizarov, Ilya Demeshov, , Konstantin Zeltsev, Amal Igamberdiev, Matvei Kirillov, , Karomatullokh Nematulloev, Vasyl Nizhegorodov, Alexey Nyfontov and Kirill Shekhter appeared on the dock.
According to the investigation, from December 2022 to January 2023, members of the group committed 13 acts of sabotage at railway and power infrastructure facilities “in the territories of the city of Moscow and the Krasnoyarsk region.” In addition, they allegedly planned to set fire to multi-purpose fighters in one of the military units in Primorye. The investigation suggests that in this way the members of the group wanted to force the Russian authorities to end the war in Ukraine.
The court sentenced 20-year-old Egor Kusonts to 23 years of imprisonment, Vladyslav Turgushev to 21 years, Artem Begoyan to 20 years, Ilya Demeshov to 19 years. The rest of the convicts received from eight and a half to 16 years of imprisonment. Alexey Nyfontov was sentenced to 4 years for being an accomplice.
- After the invasion of Ukraine, cases of sabotage on the railway and other infrastructure facilities became more frequent in Russia. Very young people are often arrested for arson. Investigators claim that some “curators from the Internet” who promise children money encourage such actions of teenagers.
- No one died as a result of the fires. Those detained on charges after the spring of 2022, when the cases became massive, are most often charged with an article about terrorism. More than 30 cases have already ended with a sentence, the most severe of which – 19 years in prison – was given to two anti-war activists for setting fire to the city administration building in the Chelyabinsk region.
