The 1st Eastern District Military Court in Khabarovsk sentenced 32-year-old Norilsk resident Maxim Polovnikov to two years in prison because of comments on VKontakte. A friend of the person involved in the case reported this to OVD-Info and Memorial.
Polovnikov was sentenced by a panel of three judges. He was found guilty in the case of justifying terrorism (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code). The prosecutor asked that the man be sentenced to five years in prison.
The case against Polovnikov was opened on August 28 last year. The reason for the persecution was comments under videos on VKontakte entitled “Dispersal of protesters against the war in Ukraine is taking place in Moscow” and “Just listen to what this terrorist whore is saying.” The content of the comments themselves, which Polovnikov wrote, is unknown.
Polovnikov worked at Norilsk Nickel. In 2018, the Zapolyarny Vestnik newspaper published an interview in which he talked about himself: that he was born in Baku, but has lived in Norilsk since he was two years old and plays football. Polovnikov worked as a repairman, and then moved to the position of sports instructor at Norilsknickelremont and played in the Repairman team.
A friend of Polovnikov told Memorial that because of his anti-war position, the man “faced problems at work.” Polovnikov is now in pre-trial detention center No. 4 in Norilsk. In November 2023, he was added to the “list of extremists and terrorists” maintained by Rosfinmonitoring.