The Southern District Military Court sentenced Sergei Stanchev, accused of attempting to set fire to a military registration and enlistment office in Stavropol Krai, to seven years in prison. This was reported to Mediazona by the court's press service.
Stanchev was found guilty of “confidential cooperation” with a foreign state and attempted terrorist attack. The man must spend the first two and a half years of his sentence in prison, the rest of the term in a general regime colony.
The court found that in January 2023, Stanchev called the phone number of an unnamed Ukrainian project and said that he wanted to join an armed formation. After this, a representative of the “Freedom of Russia” legion contacted him on the Internet, who offered “cooperation on a confidential basis,” and the man agreed.
In January-February, Stanchev, at the direction of the legion, observed the military registration and enlistment office of the Stavropol Territory, filmed it and reported to a representative of the unit, the court claims. He then agreed to set fire to the building “with the aim of destabilizing the activities of the authorities,” the court said.
February 7-8 Stanchev bought components for making a homemade incendiary mixture in Essentuki and began making it, but “could not complete the crime” because he was detained by security forces.
The Stavropol department of the FSB reported at the end of March about the detention of a resident of Essentuki, who planned to set fire to the “administrative building of the Ministry of Defense”.