From nationalist to Islamist?

In August 2023, former prisoner Kirill Banetsky, who was serving time for participation in the Right Sector and calls for extremism, was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for justifying terrorism.

In August 2023, the Central District Military Court issued a verdict in the case of public justification of terrorism (Part 1 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code).

In the dock was 26-year-old former prisoner Kirill Banetsky, who, according to law enforcement agencies, in February 2022, while serving his sentence, justified the activities of one of the banned terrorist organizations and persuaded other prisoners, after serving their sentences, to go abroad to participate in military actions on the side of this organization.

A number of media outlets report that we are talking about the terrorist movement ISIS, banned in Russia.

It is noteworthy that Banetsky, among other things, served his sentence precisely for participation in an illegal armed group, but not in some Islamist organization, but on the side of the banned “Right Sector” (Part 2 of Article 208 of the Criminal Code). Let us recall that even before he came of age (i.e., before April 2015), he published three materials from his computer with calls for extremist activity (he was later accused of public calls for extremism (Article 280 of the Criminal Code)), and after reaching 18 years old, went to the territory of Ukraine, where he joined the Right Sector. Banetsky, as reported, then underwent “sabotage physical and ideological training” in the organization, after which he joined the ranks of an illegal armed group. Fearing for his life, he fled from the Legal Sector in April 2016, and on May 1 he was detained by law enforcement agencies in the Bryansk region. In 2016, the court sentenced him to 6 years and 4 months in prison (for more information about Banetsky’s first case, see here ).

Perhaps he converted to Islam in the colony. This may be indirectly indicated by the fact that when in April 2022 it was decided that after his release he would be placed under administrative supervision, at the trial he stated that he intended to live in the territory of the Republic of Dagestan after leaving the colony in the summer of 2022. However, later, appealing the decision to place him under 8-year supervision, he stated that he had changed his mind and was going to live in the capital.

Whatever the organization in question, the Central District Military Court found him guilty of justifying terrorism and sentenced him to 2.5 years in a maximum security colony.

Sources

• Case No. 8a-19795/2022 [88a-22090/2022] // Court decisions of the Russian Federation. 2022. August 9.
• Ex-member of the Right Sector convicted of justifying terrorism in conversations with cellmates in a Mordovian colony // Interfax. 2023. August 9.
• In Mordovia, a convicted Right Sector fighter* persuaded inmates to join ISIS** // Without format. 2023. August 9.