A military court in Russia has sentenced a resident of Samara to 15 years in prison for carrying out a terrorist act involving arson against transport and communications infrastructure.
The press service of the Central District Military Court told news outlet Lenta.ru that the defendant was also found guilty of participating in the activities of a terrorist organization. Under the judicial ruling, the man will serve the first three years of his sentence in a prison before being transferred to a strict-regime penal colony.
The Central District Military Court is a specialized judicial body headquartered in Yekaterinburg that adjudicates terrorism and national security cases across Russia. In the Russian penal system, strict-regime colonies impose tighter security controls and greater restrictions on inmates than general-regime facilities.
Arson attacks and organization links
Judges established that the Samara resident joined the Freedom of Russia Legion, an organization officially designated as a terrorist group and banned inside the Russian Federation. Following his recruitment, the man set fire to a railway relay cabinet and a mobile phone base station.
The defendant filmed the arson attacks on video and sent the recording directly to the organization. According to court records, the fires caused damage exceeding 185,000 rubles. The court ordered 90,000 rubles to be recovered from the convicted man to pay toward the losses.
Samara is a major industrial city and transport hub located on the Volga River in southwestern Russia. The Freedom of Russia Legion is a paramilitary group of anti-Kremlin fighters formed during the armed conflict in Ukraine.
Broader crackdown on treason
The sentencing comes after a separate court case in Barnaul, where a student was sentenced to 17 years in a penal colony for high treason. State prosecutors said that student wrote anti-government slogans on buildings, collected intelligence on Russian servicemen, and attempted to set fire to a military recruitment office.
Barnaul is the administrative center of Altai Krai in Western Siberia. Russian law enforcement agencies have expanded investigations into infrastructure sabotage and state treason in recent years.
