Screenshot: Cherostov / Telegram
An anarchist sentenced to 16 years in prison for setting fire to a local administration building has committed suicide in detention in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, independent news outlet Mediazona reported on Friday.
Roman Shvedov was found dead in his cell on Wednesday, about five hours after the court announced its verdict, Mediazona said.
The press service of the regional Federal Penitentiary Service confirmed to Mediazona that “a defendant” had died in his cell and that an inquiry was being conducted, but declined to name him.
A Rostov-on-Don court found Shvedov, 39, guilty of “committing a terrorist act causing significant damage” on Wednesday. According to investigators, Shvedov broke a window on the first floor of a local administration building on 28 September 2022 and threw a petrol canister inside, causing damage estimated at 941,000 rubles (€8,800). He was arrested two days later.
While Shvedov initially faced a less serious charge of intentional destruction of property, Russia’s Federal Security Service later said the arson attack had been carried out to “destabilise” the work of the authorities and to “protest” against the war in Ukraine and the mass conscription announced by the Kremlin in September 2022.
Speaking in March 2023 to Solidarity Zone, a support group for those arrested for anti-war activity in Russia, Shvedov called himself an anarchist, refused legal assistance and said he would “rot in prison” and that he was “beyond help”, calling for help for other political prisoners.
Arson attempts on military recruitment centres and administrative offices have become a widespread form of protest since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In April, Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said that at least 438 people had been charged with such crimes since the start of the war.
