The Second Western District Court of Russia has sentenced 22-year-old Kirill Butylin to 13 years in a strict regime colony over charges of setting a draft office on fire in the Moscow region town of Lukhovitsy, satisfying the prosecutor’s earlier request, Russia’s state news agency TASS reports, citing a correspondent present at the court hearing.
Butylin is charged under three criminal code articles: terrorism, vandalism, and public calls for carrying out terrorist activities. According to TASS, that was the first draft office set on fire after the start of war in Ukraine.
According to the investigation, on 28 February 2022 Butylin threw Molotov cocktails at the draft office, then moved to Belarus; at the beginning of March 2022, he posted a video of the arson on Telegram. He was detained by employees of the border police when he was attempting to cross the Lithuanian border.
The manifesto spread online on behalf of Butylin stated that “the goal was to destroy the archive with personal data of conscripts, it was located in that unit” and that “it should hinder the mobilisation process in the district”.
Moskovskij Komsomolets previously reported that Butylin was taken to a police station in Lukhovitsy after his detention, however, he escaped custody on 13 March. He was caught and sent to a pre-trial detention centre. In June 2022, Butylin was included on the list of extremists and terrorists.
