Prisoner whose testimony led to increased jail time for Russian anarchist dies in war with Ukraine

A Russian man convicted of gang rape who testified against a jailed anarchist, leading to fresh charges and a second prison term, has died in the war with Ukraine, independent media outlet Mediazona reported on Friday.

Mediazona found a notification of Yevgeny Trushkov’s death in a public forum from his home village of Yubileyny in Russia’s Kirov region published on 24 July. His funeral was held a week later on the village square.

Trushkov met jailed anarchist Azat Miftakhov in prison in the Kirov region, according to Mediazona, where, as something of an authority figure, he offered him protection and the two men formed an unlikely friendship.

However, a few months before Miftakhov was due to be released, Trushkov testified against him. Mediazona said Trushkov had wanted to go to war with Ukraine in order to be released from prison as early as 2022, but the Wagner mercenary group refused to accept him due to the nature of his crime. It is thought he was eventually allowed to go to the front because he had given evidence against Miftakhov.

Miftakhov had been sentenced to six years in prison for hooliganism in January 2021 for breaking a window in the office of Russia’s ruling United Russia party in Moscow. Though that sentence was subsequently reduced, he was immediately detained upon his release in September 2023, and a new criminal case was opened against him for “justifying terrorism”.

According to the prosecution, Miftakhov had made supportive comments to fellow inmates while watching a news report about Mikhail Zhlobitsky, a student who blew himself up in a Federal Security Service office in the Arctic city of Arkhangelsk in 2018 in protest at the domestic intelligence agency’s alleged torture of anarchists. Miftakhov was sentenced to a further four years in prison in March 2024.