He allegedly committed an act of vandalism as a test. A Russian was sentenced to 16 years in prison for “high treason” after damaging a railway electrical relay on behalf of kyiv, Russian agencies announced Monday, citing security services.
“A man, born in 1976, was sentenced in November to 16 years in prison” after having “attempted to join a pro-Ukrainian terrorist organization”, according to the pro-Kremlin television channel NTV, showing a man in a box in glass with a deliberately blurred face.
According to the Russian public agency Ria Novosti, this resident of Vladimir (100 km east of Moscow) offered his services to Ukrainians who asked him, to test him, to commit an act of vandalism on the local railway network. “On October 22, 2023, the criminal set fire to the electrical relay system” of a railway junction dependent on Vladimir, according to Ria Novosti.
Since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian authorities have increased arrests for “espionage”, “treason”, “sabotage”, “extremism” or for simple criticism of the army, often with very heavy prison sentences at stake.
