A court on Sakhalin imposed a real 3-year sentence on a conscientious objector who escaped from his unit in order to “spend time idly” and not go to war.

The Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Garrison Court sentenced a serviceman named Sannikov to 3 years in a penal colony, who escaped from his unit so as not to go to war in Ukraine. Information about this is published on the court's website.

The refusenik was found guilty in the case of unauthorized leaving his place of service (part 4 of Article 337 of the Criminal Code) in the Belgorod region. Judging by part of the article, after his escape he did not appear there for more than a month. At the same time, as noted in the court press release, Sannikov not only wanted to avoid being sent to war, but also “to spend time idly.”

After leaving the unit, according to the prosecution, the refusenik lived in the city of Lysva, Perm Territory, and on August 31 he was taken to the Sakhalin Regional Hospital with acute alcohol intoxication. At the medical facility, Sannikov said that he had escaped from the unit.

Mediazona wrote about similar criminal cases against military personnel from Solnechnogorsk and Veliky Novgorod. The first was given a 5-year suspended sentence in early December, and the second was given a 4-year suspended sentence.