The court handed down sentences in the BARS case: from 3 to 8 years in prison

The Second Western District Military Court at an off-site meeting in the Baltic Naval Court sentenced the defendants in the case of the Baltic Vanguard of Russian Resistance (BARS) to imprisonment for up to 8 years. This is reported by the publication "Mediazona" with reference to the lawyer Mikhail Uvarov from the human rights group "Agora".

Alexander Orshulevich received 8 years in a penal colony, Alexander Mamaev and Igor Ivanov received 6 years each. Nikolai Sentsov was sentenced to 3 years in a colony-settlement, but was released in the courtroom due to the offset of the time spent in the pre-trial detention center.

Orshulevich, Mamaev and Ivanov were found guilty of public calls to carry out terrorist (Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) and extremist activities (Part 1 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code), Orshulevich also of creating an extremist community (Part 1 of Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code), Mamaev and Ivanov - in participation in it (part 2 of article 282.1 of the Criminal Code). Sentsov was charged only with possession of weapons and explosives (part 1 of article 222 of the Criminal Code, part 1 of article 222.1 of the Criminal Code).

The prosecutor's office demanded to appoint from 6 to 10 years in prison. The defendants denied their guilt.

Updated information about articles of indictment.

• According to investigators, members of the monarchist organization "Baltic Vanguard of Russian Resistance" ("BARS") intended to join the Kaliningrad region to the European Union by force. In order to achieve their goals, the investigation believes, the defendants were going to apply extremist inscriptions using stencils. The defense claims that these stencils were planted during the searches.
• Initially, all four were charged under an "extremist" article, then the articles were changed to more serious ones - organization and participation in a terrorist community. Orshulevich was then charged with five articles of the Criminal Code. In early April, the court reclassified the charge back to an article about an extremist community for three defendants, and left Sentsov only an article about possession of explosives.
• Alexander Orshulevich, accused of organizing the activities of BARS , stated that during the search they put a plastic bag on his head and used violence.