Ruslan Kostylenkov, convicted in the “New Greatness” case, was released

Ruslan Kostylenkov, another convict in the “New Greatness” case, was released. This was reported on Thursday by the human rights project “OVD-Info” with reference to lawyer Yulia Evdokymova.

Kostylenkov has been in custody since March 2018. Then he and several other people were detained on criminal charges of creating an extremist community. The lawyers and the defendants themselves in the case said that the “New Greatness” community appeared with the active participation of an embedded special services officer, “OVD-Info” notes.

In August 2020, the Lublin District Court of Moscow sentenced seven defendants in the case, including Kostylenkov. The latter was sentenced to seven years in a strict-regime colony, taking into account the time spent in a pre-trial detention center (a day in a detention center for a day and a half in a colony). At the same time, Piotr Karamzin and Vyacheslav Kryukov received real deadlines. Both have already been released.

Ruslan Kostylenkov served his sentence in correctional colony No. 2 in the Kostroma region. Shortly before the verdict, “Meduza” published a letter from Kostylenkov, in which he told about the day of his detention. According to the convict, he was beaten on different parts of the body and strangled with a bag, demanding incriminating statements.

• A criminal case against “New Greatness” was initiated in March 2018. According to the investigation, seven young people, the youngest of whom was 19 years old, and the oldest – 33 years old, created an extremist community and prepared a coup d’état. The defendants’ lawyers argued that the criminal case is the result of provocation by law enforcement officers.