On November 2, 2023, the 2nd Western District Military Court sentenced 56-year-old Muscovite Anatoly Poplavsky to five and a half years in prison in the case of attempting to join the Freedom of Russia Legion. Mediazona was informed about this by the press service of the court.
Poplavsky was found guilty of preparing to go over to the enemy's side. Poplavsky will spend two and a half years in prison, the rest of the term in a maximum security colony. Additionally, he was sentenced to a year of restriction of freedom.
Anatoly Poplavsky. Photo: personal page in Odnoklassniki
On October 7, 2022, the Ostankino District Court of Moscow arrested Poplavsky for 15 days under the article on petty hooliganism (Part 1 of Article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). The ruling states that on October 6 at 10:10 p.m., the man «expressed obscene language towards third parties» in the courtyard of a residential building. Five minutes later, according to the document, he was detained by police. In court, Poplavsky admitted that he swore on the street and said that he «has two young children who live in Ukraine, and a wife with whom he is in the process of divorcing.»
When he was still under administrative arrest, a criminal case was opened against him under Article 208. On October 21, the Meshchansky District Court sent the man to a pre-trial detention center.
In November 2022, SOTA was contacted by Poplavsky’s cellmate, with whom they were serving administrative arrest. The source said that, according to Poplavsky, he impulsively sent an application to the legion when he was drunk, but in fact had no intention of joining. On October 6, as SOTA wrote, FSB officers detained him: they put a bag over his head, took him to the forest and forced him to unlock his phone. SOTA's interlocutor saw a mark from a stun gun on Poplavsky, but the ambulance doctors who arrived at the special detention center recorded only a bruise.
In February 2023, he was added to the Rosfinmonitoring list of extremists and terrorists. Before his arrest, according to SOTA, Poplavsky worked for an oil and gas company. He was born in Moscow, however, judging by his page in Odnoklassniki, he spent some time in Kyiv. “Caution, news” wrote that the man lived in two countries. In Odnoklassniki, he published many joint photographs with his wife and daughters and photographs from travel.