The Amur Regional Court sentenced 38-year-old resident of Blagoveshchensk Sergei Chunosov to six years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of preparing for treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code with the application of Part 1 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code). His lawyer Yuri Levchenko told Mediazona about this.
Baza and Avtozak Live wrote about the initiation of a criminal case against Chunosov in August 2023. According to the publications, the case was opened on July 25, and on July 17 he was detained for disobeying security forces (Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) and arrested for 15 days.
As follows from the decision on an administrative violation, a former employee of the Blagoveshchensk cold storage plant was detained near the airport building in Blagoveshchensk while trying to fly to Moscow “for subsequent service in RDKin Ukraine». The protocol contains the testimony of a witness, an FSB officer for the Amur Region, who claimed that Chunosov resisted arrest, “trying to leave by bus towards the plane.” Chunosov himself said in court that the security forces did not introduce themselves and did not show official identification, putting a bag over his head, which is why he began to resist.
In a video published by RIA Novosti in early August 2023 year, three men — two of them wearing high-visibility vests — approach a man in a white T-shirt and shorts and tackle him to the ground. Later in the video, a man with a covered face confesses, saying that he planned to “fight the Russian authorities by armed means.”
According to lawyer Yuri Levchenko, Chunosov admitted guilt and will not appeal the decision. The trial of Chunosov was open, he added. Lawyer Levchenko did not disclose the details of the charges against his client, citing the fact that «Sergey and his relatives asked not to talk about it.»
Chunosov's family learned about his detention from messages on Telegram channels, a relative of the detainee, who asked for anonymity, told Mediazona. In a letter from the pretrial detention center, he asked his relatives to hire him a lawyer.
During a meeting in the Blagoveshchensk pre-trial detention center, Chunosov told his relatives that he was “forced to say that on camera,” says Mediazona’s interlocutor. According to her, Chunosov later suggested that the lawyer write a refusal to confess. “But then he let it go, because the lawyer, apparently, said, ‘Don’t rock the boat,’ because you can’t argue with the system…” she reasons.
In conversations with family members and acquaintances, Chunusov often condemned the war in Ukraine. “He never hurt a fly in his life,” says his relative. — He was against this war, he still has that position. Why and for what [people] should die, he does not understand this. At the beginning of this whole «military operation» we called each other, and he told us: “Why are you watching TV?” They're telling lies there.»
Chunusov's colleague from the cold storage plant acted as a witness in court. “So he discussed [the war] at work,” she suggests.
In court, Chunusov refused to say the last word. He explained to his family that he would not challenge the verdict “because he was tired” and “nothing would change.”