The Central District Military Court has sentenced Russian national Vladislav Borisenko to 12 years in a penal colony over charges of setting a draft office on fire in the city of Nizhnevartovsk, Russia’s state news agency TASS reports, citing its correspondent present at the court hearing.
The man was sentenced under the article “On Terrorist Attack”. The agency notes that this is the first sentence of this kind in Russia’s history.
The Prosecutor’s Office asked for 13 years behind bars for Borisenko. Under the aforementioned article, the maximum sentence is 20 years of imprisonment.
The draft office in Nizhnevartovsk was set on fire in the early hours of 4 May 2022. The arson, according to the footage available, was carried out by two young men who used several Molotov cocktails. The emergency service stated that the fire area was one square metre and no one was hurt. A week later, Borisenko and the second man Vasily Gavrilishin were detained and sent to a pre-trial detention centre.
The investigation claims that the two men threw at least seven Molotov cocktails into the building. At first, they were charged with willful destruction or damage of property and hooliganism, but later on their case was reclassified as a terrorist attack.
Gavrilishin previously claimed that they had committed the arson for money. “On Telegram, a person nicknamed Rostislav Mukhin contacted me and offered from one to three million rubles (€13,000 to €39,000) for the job. He wrote that the job was setting the draft office in Nizhnevartovsk on fire using Molotov cocktails. I agreed to the offer, seeing as I needed the money,” the interrogation materials read.
Gavrilishin also said that he was sent a $1,000 prepayment via crypto. Eventually, he set the draft office on fire, with Borisenko filming the arson.
Despite the fact that the accused admitted to committing the crime, they do not agree with reclassifying the case as a terrorist attack, seeing as they set the draft office on fire for money, they say.
