A man in Russia has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment for attempting to set fire to an enlistment office and alleged links to the Freedom of Russia Legion, Russia's Southern District Military Court said on July 30.
The man, named Sergei Stanchev, was declared guilty of an attempted terrorist attack and cooperation "on a confidential basis with a representative of a foreign state," the court said.
Stanvchev allegedly called the number of a Ukrainian organization in January 2023 while living in Essentuki in Stavropol Krai, a region in southern Russia near the Caucasus Mountains.
The court claimed that days later, a representative of the Freedom of Russia Legion reached out to Stanchev and discussed cooperation, to which Stanchev agreed.
The legion, established in March 2022 in Ukraine, is an armed group of Russians fighting alongside Kyiv's forces against Russia. Its members have also carried out cross-border raids into Russia and reportedly conducted sabotage operations inside the country.
Stanchev then allegedly "carried out surveillance and video recording of the military commissariat of Stavropol Krai" as per the instructions of the representative of the legion and planned to set fire to a military enlistment office.
The police detained Stanchev after buying the components for a "homemade incendiary mixture," the court claimed.
The Kyiv Independent cannot verify this information, and the Russian judicial system is widely thought to be systematically unfair. Torture and forced confessions are also commonplace practices among law enforcement officers, human rights organizations have found.
A Russian military court also sentenced a man in Krasnodar Krai, which borders Stavropol Krai, on July 30 for allegedly preparing to sabotage railway relay cabinets and for purported links with the Freedom of Russia Legion.
Earlier in July, a court in Moscow sentenced a dual Ukrainian-Russian citizen to 26 years in prison for allegedly trying to set fire to enlistment offices.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
(Updated: )
