10 Aug, 2026

Sixteen years for a pensioner for photographing warships, and twenty years for a biker for graffiti

Ibragim Nagoev from Maykop was apparently detained in October 2025. The grounds for his prosecution were online posts and his participation in a public event dedicated to the national liberation struggle of the Circassian people. He was charged with participating in the activities of The Council of United Circassia, an organisation designated as terrorist in Russia. Despite the organisation itself denying any connection with Ibragim Nagoev, the court found him guilty of participating in the activities of a terrorist organisation and sentenced him to eleven years in a high-security penal colony.

Ilya Mezentsev from Kislovodsk was reportedly a student at Rostov State University of Economics. He was detained by April 2024 at the latest and accused of photographing railway tracks and distributing leaflets from the Freedom of Russia Legion bearing the slogan ‘We are already close’. Ilya Mezentsev was convicted of participating in the activities of a terrorist organisation and making public calls for terrorism and sentenced to twelve years in a high-security penal colony.

Aleksei Larionov, a biker from Kostroma, was detained and remanded in custody in May 2025. He was charged with state treason and participating in the activities of an unnamed Ukrainian terrorist organisation for allegedly putting up graffiti bearing its symbols on buildings in the city and, on the instructions of a ‘handler’, preparing a CV to apply for a job at a Kostroma-based enterprise. Aleksei Larionov was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment, including four years in prison and the remainder in a high-security penal colony.

Three young residents of Kaluga — eighteen-year-old Radislav Kudenkov and fifteen-year-olds Ruslan Valiulin and Sergei Maksimov — were detained in June 2024. They were charged with terrorism over several arson attacks on mobile phone masts, allegedly carried out on the instructions of Ukrainian intelligence services. Radislav Kudenkov was additionally charged with state treason. The court sentenced him to twenty-one years’ imprisonment, while Ruslan Valiulin and Sergei Maksimov received sentences of five and a half and four and a half years respectively.

Pavel Burenkov, an electrical fitter from Bryansk Oblast, was convicted of public justification of terrorism over a single social media post in which he expressed approval of the Russian Volunteer Corps. In March 2026, a court sentenced him to one and a half years’ imprisonment.

Ihor Ivashniev, a Ukrainian national who had been living in Moscow Oblast, was detained in March 2026 and remanded in custody on charges of public justification of terrorism. The case concerns messages in group chats in which Ihor Ivashniev wrote about the lawfulness of actions by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kursk Oblast.

Nina Tymoshenko, a 66-year-old Crimean woman, was detained in September 2024 and remanded in custody. She was sentenced to sixteen years in a general-regime penal colony on charges of state treason. According to the investigation, she passed photographs and video recordings of Russian naval vessels in Sevastopol to Ukrainian intelligence.

Journalist Aleksandr Lunev was arrested in August 2026 on charges of financing extremism over seven transfers of 1,000 roubles (≈€10) each to the Anti-Corruption Foundation. Fleksandr Lunev had been living in the Czech Republic since autumn 2022. He was detained after returning to Tomsk.

Kirill Tarasov, a Jehovah’s Witness from Kemerovo, was charged with organising the activities of an extremist organisation and remanded in custody in May 2026. He faces up to ten years in prison.

Eight Ukrainian servicemen captured in Donetsk Oblast were convicted on terrorism charges over alleged membership of Azov and sentenced to lengthy prison terms: Roman Kuleshov to sixteen and a half years; Artem Zubov to seventeen years; Artem Pustovar, Artem Sheiko, Artem Domshenko, Vladyslav Korol and Dmytro Selizar to eighteen years each; and Mykhailo Nasonov to twenty years.