Perm activist deported from US sentenced to six years on terrorism charges over mannequin of Putin hung from bridge
Leonid Melyokhin, an activist from Perm who was deported from the US, has been sentenced to six years in a general-regime penal colony on charges of public justification of terrorism, Mediazona reports.
The verdict was handed down by Igor Solomko, a judge of the Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg. The case was heard behind closed doors at the request of prosecutor Mariya Otradnova, who cited an ‘increased terrorist threat’ in Sverdlovsk Oblast as justification. In addition to the prison term, Leonid Melyokhin was banned from administering websites and channels for two years.
Leonid Melyokhin applied for political asylum in the US in August 2024. Perm activist Yuriy Bobrov announced on his Telegram channel that Leonid had crossed the US–Mexico border. Yuriy Bobrov also posted a photograph showing a mannequin hanging by a rope beneath a bridge, alongside a photograph of Putin and a banner reading: ‘Putin V.V. murderer fascist usurper. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Fascist to the gallows.’ According to the post, in December 2023 Leonid wrote to Yuriy: ‘Hi, just before leaving I couldn’t help myself and hung Putin on the Kommunalny Bridge in Perm. Post a photo somewhere, it would be a shame if hardly anyone saw it.’
In October 2024, Leonid Melyokhin was added to the list of ‘terrorists and extremists’ maintained by Rosfinmonitoring, Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service. He was denied asylum in December 2024. After the refusal was upheld on appeal, he agreed to be deported to Russia. He was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on 24 July 2025 and transferred to a remand prison the following day.
The case reached the court with two counts of public justification of terrorism: an ‘offline’ count (Article 205.2, Part 1 of the Russian Criminal Code) and an ‘online’ count (Part 2). The first appears to stem from hanging the mannequin, the second from an unspecified comment posted online.
