A military tribunal in Yekaterinburg has imposed lengthy prison sentences on five individuals who identify as Marxists from the adjacent republic of Bashkortostan on charges of terrorism and conspiracy to commit a coup, according to an article from the exiled news outlet Mediazona published on Tuesday.
The accused, all men of middle and older age who participated in a leftist discussion group, were detained in Ufa, the capital of Bashkortostan, in March 2022, shortly after Russia initiated its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Authorities claimed that they conspired to violently overthrow the government with the intention of establishing a “Soviet government.” The defendants refuted these charges, asserting that their discussions were theoretical in nature and did not involve any plans for actual violent actions.
A three-judge panel from the Central District Military Court convicted the men of creating a “terrorist organization” and scheming a coup d’état.
On Tuesday, the sentences were pronounced, ranging from 16 to 22 years in a high-security prison, concluding legal proceedings that commenced in December 2023. Prosecutors had sought sentences of 20 to 24 years.
Upon hearing the verdicts, the accused shouted “fascists” in the courtroom. They characterized the charges against them as a “silent execution” and a form of “repression against communists” in their final remarks earlier this month.
Among the convicted is Alexei Dmitriev, a 43-year-old ENT doctor who established the leftist discussion group in 2016. Dmitriev and Dmitry Chuvilin, a 41-year-old former member of the Bashkortostan legislative assembly, each received a 20-year sentence.
The group also includes 66-year-old retiree Yury Yefimov, 40-year-old activist Rinat Burkeyev, and 49-year-old Pavel Matisov, who had fought alongside pro-Kremlin militia in eastern Ukraine since the conflict began in 2014.
The primary witness against the defendants was Sergei Sapozhnikov, a naturalized Russian citizen who had previously fought for pro-Kremlin forces in eastern Ukraine and later allied with the Marxist group before turning against them.
The defendants contended that Sapozhnikov fabricated his testimony during the trial.
