The Penza Regional Court sentenced a resident of the Penza District to five years in a general regime penal colony in a case of confidential cooperation with a representative of a foreign state (Article 275.1 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by the court's press service.
In addition, the convicted man was sentenced to one year of restricted freedom and stripped of his rank of reserve lieutenant.
According to investigators, in 2022, the man corresponded with representatives of the Ukrainian special services and told them that he was ready to provide assistance “in activities against the Russian Federation.”
As stated in the press release, Russian security forces, having learned about this, began to communicate with the convicted person on behalf of the Ukrainian special services and received information about the options for the defendant’s participation “in activities against the security of the Russian Federation.”
When sentencing, the court attributed active assistance in the investigation of the case at the preliminary investigation stage and the presence of minor children to mitigating circumstances. At the same time, as stated in the press release, the defendant did not actually admit guilt.
The press service does not provide the name of the convicted person, but writes that he was born in 1982. Probably, we are talking about Penza resident Pavel Pishchulin. In October 2022, the Lefortovo District Court of Moscow sent him to a pretrial detention center in a case of confidential cooperation with foreigners. The man became the first defendant under this article.
The Telegram channel "Beware of News" called Pishchulin a left-wing patriotic activist. According to the project, in 2021, the man was sentenced to compulsory work under the article on insulting the feelings of believers (Article 148 of the Criminal Code) for reposting a publication about Hitler's belongings being kept in a temple in Patriot Park. Before that, he was given a two-year suspended sentence under the article on calls for extremism (Part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code).
Mediazona wrote that Pishchulin worked in the Penza department of the Federal Penitentiary Service from 2005 to 2010. While working there, he starred in the amateur series "Kapo" about the torture of prisoners in the role of the head of the operational unit of the Penza pretrial detention center No. 1, who was involved in the torture.
- Article 275.1 (introduces criminal liability for confidential cooperation with foreign states and organizations, as well as international organizations) was included in the Criminal Code in July 2022. The article provides for three to eight years of imprisonment for cooperation on a confidential basis with a foreign state, international or foreign organization, without signs of treason.
- At the moment, more than 950 people have become defendants in criminal cases initiated due to protests against the war with Ukraine. Read more about this in our infographic .