Zabaykalsky Krai resident sentenced to six years over comments on Ukrainian organisations and the Second World War

Purbotsyren Sangadeyev, a resident of Zabaykalsky Krai, has been sentenced to six years in a general-regime penal colony over comments posted on Telegram, Chita.Ru reports.

The verdict was handed down on 14 September by the Second Eastern District Military Court, with hearings held in Chita. Purbotsyren Sangadeyev was convicted over ‘comments justifying the actions of Ukrainian terrorist organisations’ and negative remarks about ‘Russian society, the Soviet people’s victory in the Great Patriotic War and the St George ribbon’. He had posted the comments in Telegram chats that ‘the FSB describes as anti-Russian’.

In addition to the custodial sentence, Purbotsyren Sangadeyev was banned from posting material online for four years.

Purbotsyren Sangadeyev was detained in January. In video footage released by the security services, he says: ‘I wrote aggressive comments… saying that I disagreed with the policy…’. He states that he had supported groups that Russia has designated as terrorist organisations, and that he had advocated for Buryatia becoming an independent state. Answering an FSB operative’s questions, he says he wrote ‘that the USSR did not achieve victory on its own, but as part of a coalition’, and confirms that he had suggested destroying St George ribbons.

Purbotsyren Sangadeyev was initially charged with public justification of terrorism (Article 205.2, Part 2 of the Russian Criminal Code) and desecrating symbols of Russia’s military glory online (Article 354.1, Part 4). According to the case file, two further charges were later added: denying facts established by the Nuremberg Tribunal, and disseminating knowingly false information about the activities of the USSR during the Second World War (Article 354.1, Part 2(c)).

Purbotsyren Sangadeyev is 29 and was born in the village of Khara-Shibir, Chita Oblast. The press release announcing his detention stated that he worked on a rotational basis in Irkutsk Oblast.