The 2nd Western District Military Court sentenced Voronezh resident Andrei Biryukov, previously convicted for posts on VKontakte, to four years in prison because of his speech in court. This is reported by the telegram channel “Free People of Voronezh”.
Taking into account the verdict in the previous criminal case, the total sentence will be six years in prison — from the colony, as the “Free People of Voronezh” noted, Biryukov should be released in September 2029.
Voronezh resident was found guilty of justifying terrorism (Part 1 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) and inciting hatred towards government officials (Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code). The reason for criminal prosecution under these articles was his speech with the last word during an appeal against the verdict in a previous criminal case.
In his speech to the Military Court of Appeal on January 23, 2023, Biryukov, among other things, described Russia as “Putin’s fascism” and called it a “crazy fascist gas station,” recalling the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine — in particular, the shelling of peaceful cities after the explosion on the Crimean Bridge.
The Voronezh resident also explained that he considers any actions against the Putin regime a “necessity” and not “terrorist attacks”, and called on Russians for mass protests. During his speech, Biryukov also recalled that he himself had not committed a single violent act, while, according to him, FSB officers used force against him.
“I do not just passively justify, but actively promote any terrorist actions against state military facilities of the Russian Federation <…> If you wish, you can initiate a criminal case against me under the relevant article,” he added.
In November 2022, the same court sentenced Biryukov to three and a half years in a general regime colony in cases of public justification of terrorism (part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) and calls for extremism (Part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code) on the Internet.
Then the reason for criminal prosecution was posts on VKontakte — in them the convict wished death to Russia and “Rusna” and spoke about the case of Voronezh resident Nadezhda Belova, who was found guilty of justifying terrorism because of a post about a self-detonation anarchist Mikhail Zhlobitsky in the building of the FSB administration in the Arkhangelsk region in 2018.