Russian man who attempted to join pro-Ukrainian legion found legally insane

Russia’s Tver regional court has ruled that Sergey Kolin, a Russian man who was charged with attempting to join an illegal armed gang, is legally insane, OVD-Info reports, citing the court announcement.

The man has been forcibly hospitalised for psychiatric treatment. He was released from criminal liability. Kolin was arrested in April 2022 in the village of Pogoreloye Gorodishche. According to the investigation team, he was planning to join the Freedom of Russia Legion, a unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces which, according to Ukrainian officials, is made up of Russian prisoners of war and volunteers.

Prior to his detention, Kolin was a YouTube creator for the Kupala TV channel. Earlier, Andrey Trofimov, a suspect in cases related to “fakes” about the military and calls for extremism, reported about this from a detention centre in the Tver region. According to Trofimov, after the start of the war the blogger in his videos talked about “real news” and expressed support for Ukraine, where he had lived for some time.