Pensioner from Tver Oblast has six-year sentence upheld over an emotional comment about the tax service

Larisa Mikhay, 60, has had her six-year sentence to a general-regime penal colony upheld on appeal in a case concerning public incitement to terrorism under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code, SOTAvision reports.

The case arose from a comment Larisa Mikhay left about the tax inspectorate in Klin after it mistakenly calculated that she owed 500,000 roubles in tax. The precise content of the comment she posted in 2023 is not known. Larisa herself says she ‘wrote it and forgot about it.’ The issue was subsequently resolved.

‘According to the investigators, I decided to express my views because I have a negative view of the Federal Tax Service as a state institution. I had a grievance with a specific tax office, not with the Federal Tax Service as a whole, and there was no criminal intent. There have been no victims in three years and there are none now — the tax office was not harmed in any way by my comment, it continues to thrive. The only ones who have suffered are me and my family,’ Larisa Mikhay said at the appeal hearing.

Larisa Mikhay was detained in 2025 and remanded in custody. She was sentenced on 4 March.