On May 15, the Kislovodsk City Court of Stavropol Krai sentenced local resident B. to five years in prison for participating in the activities of an extremist organization (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code) and intentional destruction of property (Part 2 of Article 167 of the Criminal Code), and Sergei Mitin to one and a half years of probation with a probationary period of one and a half years; he was charged only with the second article. This was reported by the court's press service.
According to the investigation, B. joined the Ukrainian organization "Right Sector" in January 2023. He recorded a video message in which he "swore an oath of allegiance and expressed his readiness to unquestioningly follow the orders" of the organization, after which, together with Mitin, they set fire to the letter V on the KisloVodsk stele. It is noted that the damage to the city administration budget amounted to more than 127 thousand rubles. The court's press service clarifies that at first they collected dry branches into the letter V and set them on fire, but this did not suit the "curator".
It also emerged during the investigation that in September 2022, B. worked in a funeral services bureau and set fire to the company's building, destroying property worth more than 1 million 500 thousand rubles, which became the second episode under the relevant article in his case.
- Right Sector is an association of Ukrainian nationalist organizations that participated in the Kiev Maidan of 2013–2014. In November 2014, the Supreme Court of Russia recognized Right Sector as an extremist organization and banned its activities in the country.
- After the war in Ukraine began, the Russian authorities began to react sharply to protest sentiments. The list of articles under which those speaking out against the war are prosecuted is quite broad. The defendants in "anti-war cases" are often charged with hooliganism, vandalism, violence against government officials, and other violations. Articles introduced into the Criminal Code after the start of military operations also became a significant element of pressure - the dissemination of "fakes" about the Russian army and discrediting the armed forces.