The Rtishchevsky District Court of the Saratov Region sentenced local resident Ilya Usoyan, who persuaded his friend at the front to surrender, to three and a half years in a general regime colony. This was reported by OVD-Info.
Usoyan’s lawyer Alexey Balalaikin told Mediazona that in 2023, a resident of Rtishchevo tried to persuade his friend, who had gone to war in Ukraine, to surrender. “I found out that a friend, so to speak, was feeling bad there [at the front] and decided to go to a Ukrainian website and tried to connect him [with the Ukrainian side],” said the defender.
Usoyan was detained last fall. Initially, he was accused of incitement to voluntary surrender, but later the charge was reclassified to preparation for organizing voluntary surrender. Usoyan’s case was considered within a week — on May 13 it was submitted to the court, and on the 21st the man was sentenced.
Usoyan’s friend was also charged and was defended by Balalaikin. According to his lawyer, after returning from the war he was acquitted. Balalaikin did not clarify the details of the case and the article of accusation.
Pipeline. By March 2024, military courts began to issue 34 sentences per day for escaping from service