The Saratov Regional Court sentenced two local college students in the case of a failed arson at the Jasminnaya railway station. This was reported by the press service of the court.
Both were found guilty of attempted sabotage (Part 3 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code, paragraph “a” of Part 2 of Article 281 of the Criminal Code). 20-year-old Ruslan Gashumov was sentenced to nine and a half years in a maximum security colony; he will spend the first three years of his sentence in prison. The student’s girlfriend, who was under 18 at the time of the crime, was sentenced to four and a half years in a general regime colony.
According to the court, in May 2023, an unknown person wrote to Gashumov in a telegram, who invited the young man to set fire to two relay cabinets at the Jasminnaya station for a reward of 30 thousand rubles. The student received “detailed instructions,” and then, the press service of the court quotes the verdict, offered to set fire to the equipment for money to a minor acquaintance, to which she agreed.
It is alleged that the students bought a crowbar and kerosene and on July 19 went to the railway station, where Gashumov tried unsuccessfully to open the metal doors of the relay cabinets. At this time, the student’s friend noticed the headlights from the car in which Russian Railways employees were traveling, and the students left the station, fearing detention.
According to the database of court decisions, Gashumov was initially arrested under the milder article of attempted intentional destruction of property by arson (Part 3 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code, Part 2 of Article 167 of the Criminal Code), later the case was reclassified.
As Mediazona noticed, Ruslan Gashumov was mentioned on the Volsk libraries website as a student at the Saratov Regional College of Arts and the winner of a literary competition in the Poetry category. In 2023, the Saratov regional branch of the Union of Writers of Russia also wrote about Gashumov’s poems on its website.