The Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg sentenced 59-year-old janitor from Nizhny Tagil Viktor Rastorguev to eight years in a maximum security colony. This was reported in the telegram channel Anti-Terrorist Commission in the Sverdlovsk Region.
The convicted person will spend the first three years in prison, the rest of the term in a maximum security colony. He was also fined 300 thousand rubles. Rastorguev was found guilty of attempted illegal production of explosive devices (Part 3 of Article 30, Part 2 of Article 223.1 of the Criminal Code), as well as preparation for a terrorist attack (Part 1 of Article 30, paragraph “a” of Part 2 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code).
According to the case file on the court website, the verdict was handed down on December 20, 2023. Rastorguev did not agree with him and filed an appeal.
According to 66.ru, the 59-year-old janitor is originally from Mariupol; in 2014 he moved to Nizhny Tagil. He was detained in October 2022. A representative of the regional department of the FSB, Alina Kazantseva, said that, according to the investigation, Rastorguev produced homemade missiles to attack Uralvagonzavod.
At the same time, in court, notes 66.ru, a different plot of the accusation was presented. The main witness for the prosecution was a man whom Rastorguev met on social networks due to common opposition views (the man’s name is not given).
According to the witness, after six months of personal meetings, he and Rastorguev were drinking beer, and he said: “Let’s blow up the bank, or better yet, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, or even better, the military registration and enlistment office, in order to prevent the conduct of the SVO.” The witness claims that the accused knew how to assemble explosives, since “he was an excellent student in chemistry at school and watched a lot of educational videos on the Internet.”
In the equipment storage room, the witness says, the janitor began assembling a rocket from plumbing pipes. In August 2022, the witness went to Yekaterinburg as planned to buy the necessary chemicals and a coffee grinder, and also take a photograph of the military registration and enlistment office. But, having arrived in Yekaterinburg, the witness, according to him, went to the FSB: “Although I do not agree with what is happening in the country, I am against killing people. That’s why I decided to confess everything.”
Further, under the control of security forces, the witness helped Rastorguev make explosives and test them in a forest park. During the second tests, the janitor was detained by security forces.
Rastorguev himself, commenting on the interrogation of the witness, said that he “lies like he breathes.” From the moment of his arrest, the janitor denied plans to carry out a terrorist attack and insisted that he was preparing fireworks.