The man convicted of setting fire to the military enlistment office was demanded to call Putin handsome

Kirill Butylin, who was convicted of setting fire to the military enlistment office, said that he was threatened in the pre-trial detention center for refusing to call Russian President Vladimir Putin “handsome”. Excerpts from Butylyna’s writings were published by “Solidarity Zone”.

According to 22-year-old Butylin, when he was in the pre-trial detention center in Kolomna, he was released by the local police and asked to say “Putin is handsome” on camera. Butylin refused – to this he was told that he “will rot for 15 years in solitary confinement with pedophiles, his teeth will fall out and all that.”

In March 2023, Butylin was sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony for setting fire to a military enlistment office in Lukhovitsy, Moscow region. They also painted the gates of the building in the colors of the Ukrainian flag and the inscription “I will not go to kill my brothers!”. The military court found him guilty under the articles of terrorist attack, public appeals to terrorism and vandalism motivated by political enmity.

He filmed his actions on camera, then posted the video on Telegram. In the post, he explained that the purpose of the arson was to destroy the archive with the personal files of conscripts. According to him, “this should prevent mobilization in the district.” The video was published in March 2022.

• After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, military enlistment offices, police departments, city administration buildings, and “United Russia” receptions began to be set on fire all over Russia. After the announcement of mobilization, the number of such attacks increased many times. At the moment, it is known about almost a hundred requests for arson.
• As a result of the fires, no one was killed or injured. At first, cases were considered under the criminal articles of damage to someone else’s property and hooliganism. The first sentence, in which the arson of the military enlistment office was qualified as a terrorist act, was handed down at the end of January 2023.