Arkhangelsk man detained at airport while trying to leave Russia sentenced to 10 years on charges of attempting to join the Russian Volunteer Corps

Ivan Shadrin has been sentenced to 10 years on charges of attempting to join the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), according to the Chat about Letters and Books for Political Prisoners. He must serve the first three years in prison and the remainder of his sentence in a high-security penal colony.

Ivan Shadrin, an 18-year-old from Arkhangelsk, was detained at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow on 2 March 2025. An administrative offence report was drawn up against him for petty hooliganism involving disobedience to a public official (Article 20.1, Part 2 of the Code of Administrative Offences), and on 3 March a court sentenced him to 15 days’ administrative detention. According to the published ruling, Ivan told the court hearing his administrative case that he ‘is in contact with a terrorist group’.

After serving his administrative detention, Ivan Shadrin was transferred to a remand prison in connection with a criminal case of attempted participation in a terrorist organisation (Article 30, Part 3 and Article 205.5, Part 2 of the Russian Criminal Code). One of the rulings upholding the extension of his pre-trial detention states that as early as 7 April 2024 he had been issued with an official warning that actions ‘creating conditions for the commission of’ high treason were impermissible. He was later also charged with high treason (Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code).

In letters to volunteers, Ivan Shadrin said that his ‘crime is wanting to join the RDK out of sympathy for the people of Ukraine’. According to some reports, he attempted suicide after his arrest.