The Tula Regional Court sentenced Daniil Stepanov, a resident of the city of Aleksin, who opposed the war in Ukraine, to four years and six months in a penal colony. This was reported by representatives of the court.
According to the investigation, from August to November 2022, Stepanov cooperated «on a confidential basis» with a representative of an unnamed foreign organization (Article 275.1 of the Criminal Code). At the same time, he painted anti-war inscriptions on the city military registration and enlistment office, the buildings of the mayor's office and the Pension Fund in Aleksin and set fire to banners in support of the war. This was qualified as vandalism (Part 2 of Article 214 of the Criminal Code) .
The anonymous telegram channel “Tula.ExtremeZm” claims that 31-year-old Stepanov was detained at the border with Georgia, and correspondence with participants of Freedom of Russia Legion. It is likely that the legion is referring to the investigation by «foreign organization.» At that time, it was not banned in Russia, the court recognized the legion as a “terrorist organization” in the spring of 2023.
According to the channel, during the search, Ukrainian flags and white-blue-white flags were confiscated from Stepanov opponents of the war and which later made the Legion «Freedom of Russia» its symbol.
Odnoklassniki has an abandoned page of 31-year-old Daniil Stepanov from Aleksin. The Tula.ExtremeZm channel took the blurred avatar from there to illustrate its post. The man, according to the description, studied at the city chemical-technological college. Stepanov put a white-blue-white flag on his profile picture on VKontakte with a link to the telegram channel of the Freedom of Russia legion. Legal information aggregators mention the liquidated IP Stepanov; as activities, he indicated construction work.