Russia. Yekaterinburg. Two musicians sentenced to 19 years in prison for setting fire to a military precinct

This is an exceptionally harsh sentence, even for Putin’s reality Russia. The court decided on such a draconian punishment, probably because both men were previously associated with the law enforcement agencies. The 37-year-old Nuriyev worked in the structures of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, while the 27-year-old Nasryev – as a driver in the security service associated with the National Guard (Rosgvardia) – we read on the website of the opposition Nastoyashcheye Vremya (Current Time).

The musicians will spend the first four years in prison, and the rest of the sentence – in a maximum security penal colony.

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In the court’s opinion, the convicts allegedly “committed a terrorist act” because in October 2022 they threw Molotov cocktails into the building where the seat of the local administration of the city of Bakal in the Chelyabinsk region and the local military commissariat are located. During the investigation, Nasriyev admitted that he decided on this act because he opposes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and announced in autumn 2022 by Vladimir Putin “partial” mobilization for war.

– In this way, I wanted to emphasize my disagreement (for such actions of the country’s authorities). I wanted my voice to be heard,” he explained. The content of his statements was provided to independent media by local defenders human rights.

Marina Borkova, an employee of the military commissariat in the city of Bakal, told the court that the arson could have destroyed the file with the data of 4,000 people and “paralyzed the mobilization process.” “However, only linoleum ignited as a result of the fire, and the fire was extinguished by the watchman,” Nastoyashcheye Vremya TV reported.

Russian oppositionists and Western observers emphasize that the harsh penalties introduced in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, are increasingly reminiscent of the repressions of the Stalinist era. Such a view was expressed, for example, in early March by Peter Stano, spokesman for the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell.

In the first days of March, she was 13 years old Masha Moskalova was placed in a care center for drawing an anti-war picture at schooland her father, the child’s sole guardian, was placed under house arrest on charges of “discrediting the army”. He was sentenced to two years in prison late last month.

Also in March, Vasily Bolshakov, a resident of the town of Kasimov in the Ryazan region, was arrested for posting a joke on the Internet referring to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. The man is liable to imprisonment for at least three years.

Another peculiar case concerns 62-year-old retireeagainst whom the Moscow prosecutor’s office demanded a seven-year prison sentence at the end of March for comments posted on social media.