Sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky is fined for video about Crimean Bridge blast. He was reported to police by Ukhta’s “chief pioneer”

A military court in the northern Russian region of Komi sentenced sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky to a fine of 600,000 rubles (€6185) for “justification of terrorism”, although the prosecution requested a prison term of 5.5 years for him, SOTA reports.

The charges were based on a video published by the Rabkor media outlet headed by Kagarlitsky. The video entitled “Explosive congratulations of the cat Mostik, Nervous people and events, Strikes on infrastructure” was dedicated to the blast on the Crimean Bridge on October 8, 2022. The video has now been deleted.

Kagarlitsky’s lawyer Sergei Erokhov said that the age of the defendant who is 65 years old was the reason for the lenient sentence and added that they were satisfied with the verdict. Kagarlitsky did not plead guilty and said in court that he had opposed any form of terrorism or terrorist policies all his life.

Kagarlitsky was released in the courtroom. He told reporters that such a lenient sentence was due to the publicity around his case.

     “Unfortunately, for those who fall under the same road roller in some small town, in a local court, with local law enforcement officers, their fate is much more dramatic, simply because their case is often not known, including among big bosses,” 

– Kagarlitsky told a SOTA reporter.

As it became known at the first hearing, which took place the day before, Boris Kagarlitsky had been reported to the police by a local council member in the city of Ukhta and director of the local Creativity Center Leonid Krasnoperov. This was the reason why the case was considered in Komi.

Leonid Krasnoperov is also a member of the expert board of the Kremlin-backed youth association “Movement of the First”, a copy of the pioneer movement in the USSR. On his social media page, Krasnoperov praises the policies of President Vladimir Putin and publishes “patriotic” content. Some of his posts are dedicated to Joseph Stalin, whom he calls “The Great Ruler of Russia”.

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Boris Kagarlitsky is a political scientist, sociologist, teacher, and author of publications and studies on the leftist movement in Russia and the world. In April 1982, Kagarlitsky was arrested for “anti-Soviet propaganda” and spent just over a year in Lefortovo prison. In addition, Kagarlitsky is the editor-in-chief of the online media outlet Rabkor and the author of the YouTube channel of the same name. In 2022, the Ministry of Justice put Kagarlitsky on the list of “foreign agents”.

Criminal cases related to comments about the explosion on the Crimean Bridge began to be initiated after the incident on October 8, 2022. The state used these cases, among other things, to suppress anti-war sentiment in Russia. In May 2023, Nikita Tushkanov, a school teacher from Komi, was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison. The FSB accused him of justifying terrorism for his comments about the Crimean Bridge. Arkhangelsk student Olesya Krivtsova, who escaped from house arrest in March of this year, also faced criminal prosecution on the same charges. Human rights organization Memorial put Tushkanov and Krivtsova on the list of political prisoners.