The Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg sentenced 27-year-old anarchist Alexei Rozhkov to 16 years in prison for setting fire to a military enlistment office in the town of Berezovsky, reported a correspondent from «Mediazona»* from the courtroom.
Rozhkov was charged with «terrorism», «justification of terrorism», and spreading «fake news» about the Russian army. The first five years he must spend in prison, the remaining term — in a strict regime colony. He is also banned from administering websites and internet channels for four years.
The prosecution requested 19 years in a colony, even though no one was harmed. However, the prosecution suggested that the enlistment office could have burned down completely if it hadn't been extinguished, proposing to base the case on these assumptions.
Rozhkov's lawyer, Natalia Novikova, in turn, reminded that there was no actual fire, only the plastic entrance doors melted, and the public defender added that the real damage amounted to 1256 rubles. After the verdict, Novikova's defense stated that they would appeal the sentence.
Before the war, Rozhkov worked as a consultant in an electronics store DNS. On March 11, 2022, the man threw three Molotov cocktails at the city military enlistment office—at that time it was the third case of setting fire to a commissariat in the entire country. The building was almost unharmed by the fire, it was extinguished immediately. The man was quickly detained. During interrogation, he immediately confessed to the arson and explained that he did it as a protest against the war in Ukraine. Rozhkov insisted that the aim of his action was not «destabilizing the situation» in the country and not destroying the enlistment office, but drawing attention to the war and the conscription of draftees to the front.
Initially, the man was sent to pre-trial detention on charges of attempted murder of security guard Svetlana Sultanova. In detention, he ended up in a psychiatric ward due to insomnia, and the treatment prescribed by prison doctors did not help.
Six months later, the charges against Rozhkov were reclassified to attempted destruction of someone else's property, and he was released under a travel ban. After that, he went to Kyrgyzstan. However, on May 30, 2023, local law enforcement came to his rented apartment in Bishkek. They refused to call Rozhkov's lawyer and threatened to send him to a «press hut». In the end, he was forcibly taken to the airport and sent to Russia. In court, Rozhkov repeatedly stated that he was tortured during the investigation. His charges were toughened, changing the article from destruction of property to terrorism, and two more charges were added for an interview with «Khodorkovsky LIVE», which he gave while in Kyrgyzstan.
In his closing statement, Rozhkov said he committed the arson because of his anti-war beliefs. «I showed that in our country there is at least one citizen with an anti-war stance who could not remain indifferent to the conscription of draftees to the war and other severe consequences for people. At that time, perhaps, yes. Now, naturally, I am not the only prisoner of conscience, there are quite a few. I desecrated the entrance to the enlistment office, which I considered a symbol of the ongoing war», — Rozhkov stated.
* Recognized in Russia as an «foreign agent».
Photo: Mediazona