The Second Eastern District Military Court in Chita sentenced Bratsk resident Dmitry Mikheev to eighteen years in a high-security colony in the case of setting fire to a military enlistment office, reported the Telegram channel «Freedom to Political Prisoners». He was found guilty of «committing a terrorist act», «training for terrorism», and «treason». The prosecution requested a sentence of 23 years.
In January 2023, the young man threw a bottle with an incendiary mixture into the window of the military enlistment office in Bratsk around two o'clock in the morning, a security guard noticed the smoke and called the firefighters, who extinguished the fire.
The next day, 21-year-old sound engineer of TRK «Bratsk» Dmitry Mikheev was detained on suspicion of arson. Since January 11, he has been in custody. During the investigation, Mikheev spent about six months in the Irkutsk Regional Psychiatric Hospital, where he was temporarily placed based on the results of a forensic psychiatric examination.
Initially, the police initiated a criminal case under the article of intentional destruction of someone else's property, but later the charge was aggravated, reclassified to «terrorism» and «treason».
By October 2024, almost 50% more criminal cases on terrorism had been initiated in Russia than in the entire year of 2023, and 15 times more than in 2021.