Russia. Yevgeny Zabolotny was sentenced to 12 years in prison for setting a 1.5 square meter fire in the FSB building.

A resident of the city of Usinsk in northern Russia’s Komi Republic was sentenced to 12 years in prison for setting a 1.5 square meter fire in the building of the local branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in May. In prison, independent Russian television Nastoyashchee Vremya reported on Wednesday.

Yevgeny Zabolotny threw a bottle with flammable liquid into the window of the building, which led to a small fire. The man was accused of “engaging in a terrorist act to disrupt the activities of the authorities and gain (beneficial) influence over their decision-making”.

The man was sentenced to 12 years in prison and will spend nine years in a maximum security penal colony, opposition media reported.

Russian opponents and Western observers insist that harsh punishments introduced in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, increasingly resemble the repressions of the Stalinist era. For example, in March 2023, this opinion was expressed by Peter Stano, a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Josef Borrell.

In April, a court in Yekaterinburg sentenced musicians Roman Nasriev and Alexei Nureyev to 19 years in prison for setting fire to the headquarters of the Military Commission, meaning the Military Reinforcement Command.

Also read: “An exceptionally harsh sentence, even considering the realities of Putin’s Russia.” Musicians were punished

A few weeks earlier, in March, 13-year-old Masha Moskalova was sent to a care center for drawing an anti-war picture at school, and her father, the child’s sole guardian, was sentenced to two years in prison. “Discrediting the Army.”