The defendant in the treason case, who was arrested in February by the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow, is a former employee of the Patriot Park of the Ministry of Defense and a seller of chevrons for Russian security forces, Nikolai Martynov, the BBC Russian Service found out.
26-year-old Martynov worked as an engineer in the technical department at Patriot Park, was registered on the pro-government platform for volunteers Dobro.ru and administrated the VKontakte group “Embroidery, patches, custom chevrons.” He also sewed insignia for the security forces, the Wagner PMC, the federal bailiff service, the airborne troops and the Akhmat detachment.
Before his arrest under the article of treason, courts near Moscow sent Martynov to special detention centers five times in a row under administrative protocols. The Mozhaisk court was the first to do this: on December 15, 2023, it sentenced the young man to 12 days of arrest under a protocol of disobedience to the police (Part 1 of Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code).
Martynov was sent to Istra, he was supposed to leave the special detention center on December 27 at 13:15. At 1:27 p.m., the police report says, he was detained in a square 200 meters from the special detention center, where he “expressed crude obscene language” and pushed a man. Martynov claims that at that time he was in a special detention center. The Istra court sentenced him to 10 days of arrest under the article of petty hooliganism (Part 1 of Article 20.1 of the Administrative Code).
Half an hour after the expiration of the second arrest, the next court decision says, Martynov found himself in a cafe in the city of Ruza, where it took more than an hour to travel from Istra. The cafe employee allegedly asked him to stop swearing and called the police. The Ruza court sentenced Martynov to 15 days of arrest under the same article of petty hooliganism.
On January 21, the day the new arrest ended, Martynov was detained in the village of Nakhabino near Krasnogorsk. The next day, the Krasnogorsk court arrested him for 14 days — again under the article of hooliganism.
After the fourth arrest, the young man was detained in Mozhaisk “to check for involvement in a crime.” On February 5, he was arrested again by the Mozhaisk court. Then Martynov was sentenced to 12 days in the case of disobedience to the police.
The last administrative arrest expired on February 16. Five days later, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow sent Martynov to a pre-trial detention center under the criminal article of high treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code). On April 17, the arrest was extended. It is unknown what exactly Martynov is accused of.