“Mediazona”: a case was opened against Vyacheslav Maltsev for organizing a terrorist community

The leader of the Artpodgotovka movement banned in Russia, Vyacheslav Maltsev, was charged with organizing a terrorist community (Part 1 of Article 205.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). This was reported by Mediazona, citing a source familiar with the case.

The case of participation in a terrorist community was brought against five associates of Maltsev, the newspaper writes. One of them, Andrei Tolkachev, is also suspected of plotting a terrorist attack. The names of other defendants in the case are Alexander Svishchev, Yury Korny, Andrey Keptya and Nadezhda Petrova.

The FSB believes, writes Mediazona, that Maltsev instructed Petrova and Svishchev to plan the attacks, and Tolkachev, Korny and Kept to execute them. According to investigators, the defendants in the case "organized" to carry out terrorist attacks no later than October 2016.

We are probably talking about the same people who were detained on the morning of November 10 by RBC. Both publications report that they are suspected of intending to set fire to wooden pallets (that is, pallets) and hay on Manezhnaya Square and disable power lines.

• The leader of the Artpodgotovka movement, the nationalist Vyacheslav Maltsev, has repeatedly said that on November 5, 2017, a revolution should take place in Russia. He himself is abroad, a case has been initiated against him for incitement to extremism.
• On the eve of this date, Artopodgotovka was recognized in Russia as an extremist organization, and dozens of Maltsev’s supporters were detained throughout the country, many of them became defendants in criminal cases. On November 5, more than 450 people were detained in Russia, most of them in Moscow. A significant part of the detainees, apparently, were bystanders.
• Later, the Investigative Committee announced the initiation of a criminal case under articles relating to incitement to riots and terrorism and the use of violence against police officers.
• Yury Korny and Andrey Keptya were detained on Manezhnaya Square in the first half of October and arrested at the end of the month for plotting a terrorist attack. REN-TV reported on their plans to set fire to hay near the Kremlin shortly after their arrest. Alexander Svishchev was mentioned as the head of a group from Krasnoyarsk that allegedly planned sabotage on power lines.