The Supreme Court of Karachay-Cherkessia commuted the punishment of eight of the nine defendants in the case of “citizens of the USSR” on appeal, one of the convicts told OVD-Info.
The decision was made on February 4th. According to the convict, the terms were reduced:
- Oleko Kuzhev - from 8 years in a general regime colony to 6 years 1 month;
- Adnan Meremshaov - from 6.5 years in prison to 6 years 1 month;
- Vladimir Ilyichev and Abdulmalik Shoev - from 5 years in prison to 3.5 years each;
- Larisa Yakusheva and Svetlana Darova from 7 years old to 6 years probation each;
- Anita Tukova and Olga Primak - from 5 years suspended to 4 years each.
Another defendant in the case, Aslan Naptugov, who was sentenced to 5 years in prison, was given the same sentence. He was released from the pre-trial detention center on September 21, 2025 - two months after the verdict was announced . By then his term had ended.
Ilyichev and Shoev were released from the pre-trial detention center on February 27, three weeks after the appeal decision.
None of the nine defendants admits guilt. They are going to cassation to seek a complete overturning of the sentence.
Initially, Oleg Bondarenko and Yulia Kambieva were also involved in the case. Their cases were considered separately. According to the interlocutor of OVD-Info, Bondarenko entered into a pre-trial agreement and in 2024 he was sentenced to 3.5 years of probation. The case against Kambieva was separated into separate proceedings after she was put on the wanted list for failing to appear in court. After that, she spent three months in a pre-trial detention center. The woman admitted guilt and was sentenced to 3 years probation.
According to investigators, in 2019-2020, the defendants in the case created an extremist community, which was guided by the ideas of the “Union of Slavic Forces of Russia” banned by the Supreme Court of Komi. Investigators claimed that they disseminated information on the Internet and government institutions in Karachay-Cherkessia about the continued existence of the USSR and denied the Russian Constitution, as well as the legitimacy of state power and the laws of the Russian Federation.
The defendants were also accused of trying to interfere with the work of the local Rospotrebnadzor, the government of Karachay-Cherkessia and the bailiff service. Thus, they demanded the lifting of restrictive measures during the coronavirus pandemic, organized rallies near the government building and tried to prevent the execution of a court decision against one of the defendants.
For their activities, they allegedly created several organizations: a branch of the trade union organization “Solidarity”, the Territorial-Clan Community “Abaza-Adyghe / Circassian Union of Sovereign Free Clans”, “Council of People’s Deputies”, “State Defense Committee” and “Ministry of State Security of the USSR”.
The security forces named Darova, Yakusheva and Kuzheva as leaders, who were charged with creating an extremist community (Part 1 of Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code). The remaining defendants were accused of participating in it (Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). Kuzhev was also accused of storing explosives (Part 1 of Article 222.1 of the Criminal Code). And Meremshaov was charged with the same charge and an article on illegal trafficking in weapons (clause “a”, part 3 of article 222 of the Criminal Code).