(Reuters) – A Russian navy court docket handed down a 14-year sentence to a person it discovered responsible of cooperating with a international state and “justifying terrorism,” Russian media reported on Monday.
Investigators initially accused Vladlen Menshikov, 29, of trying to sabotage railway traces carrying navy gear close to his hometown of Rezh, a small village close to the Urals metropolis of Yekaterinburg, the Vecherniye Vedomosti newspaper mentioned.
He was later charged with the 2 different counts and the tried sabotage cost was dropped, the newspaper mentioned, citing paperwork from the Yekaterinburg navy court docket.
It mentioned Menshikov was suspected of receiving directions from the Freedom of Russia Legion, a Ukrainian-based paramilitary group of Russians who oppose President Vladimir Putin and who’ve claimed accountability for cross-border assaults into Russian territory.
Russian officers have linked pro-Ukrainian sabotage teams with quite a few assaults on railways aimed toward disrupting provides to the conflict entrance in Ukraine since Moscow’s full-scale invasion started greater than two years in the past.
Ukraine’s home spy company has additionally been accused of detonating explosives on railway traces inside Russia
Russia’s Federal Safety Service (FSB), the successor to the Soviet-era KGB, detained Menshikov in September 2022 at St Petersburg airport whereas he was attempting to board a flight to Belarus, Vecherniye Vedomosti mentioned.
The newspaper didn’t say if Menshikov meant to enchantment.
(Reporting and writing by Lucy Papachristou; Modifying by Mark Trevelyan)