A native of the Moscow region, arrested in the case of justifying terrorism, was accused of participating in NS/WP and the Freedom of Russia Legion.

on September 11 by the Basmanny District Court of Moscow 47-year-old native of the Moscow region Mikhail Darius, who was arrested in the case of publicly justifying terrorism on the Internet (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code), was also charged with participation in a terrorist organization (Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code). Mikhail Darius himself reported this in a letter to Mediazona. This also follows from the decision to place him in custody for two months, posted on the court’s website.

Darius writes that he is accused of participating “in groups” NS/WP and the “Freedom of Russia” legion, as well as “organizing his own group” in a telegram.

“I do not agree with the accusation: participation and viewing news in a particular group cannot be a reason [to consider a person] a participant in the actions of the group,” Darius says in the letter. — My page in the telegram channel was actually inactive. My personal opinion is that all this was started by some beneficiaries.”

The accused says that he communicated with Ukrainians and “led a policy of defending Russians to the other side, explaining that public bullying and ridicule never lead to a positive result.” According to Darius, the investigator told him that the people with whom he corresponded “have a high military status.”

The case against Darius, according to the resolution, was opened on September 9. The document states that since May 19, 2022, he participated in a “terrorist organization” and a “terrorist organization Ukrainian paramilitary association” - their names are replaced with asterisks. According to the prosecution, Darius, setting out to call for terrorism, spread the ideology of these organizations, recruit new participants and encourage them to commit terrorist attacks, communicated with “at least 12” people. With his statements, he encouraged them to take actions related to “violence, causing harm and damage, as well as the need to carry out such actions under his personal instructions,” the document says.

The appointed lawyer, Evgeniy Shalamov, asked that he be prohibited from certain actions, noting that he partially admitted guilt, but denied participation in terrorist organizations, and his statements in telegram channels cannot be regarded as public statements.

As Mediazona previously found out, on Instagram Darius follows politicians and businessmen Alexei Navalny, Maria Pevchikh, Maxim Kats, Evgeny Chichvarkin, Alexander Nevzorov, Oleg Tinkov, as well as a dozen accounts that talk about emigration to the USA and Canada.

Darius was also a member of a group called “Peace ,” which mainly reposts messages about the war in Ukraine. The description states that it is led by “an ordinary person living in the Russian Federation” who is “against a stupid, terrible, destructive war.” The group consists of more than one and a half thousand people.

“War never ended by force, always only through negotiations, and negotiations begin with humanizing consciousness and understanding how much grief [war] brings to loved ones,” Darius writes at the end of the letter. “The war must be stopped with humanity, not tanks.”