The husband of the former director of “New Holland” has been convicted over two posts about the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall.

The 1st Western District Military Court has fined set designer and husband of former director of New Holland Nikolay Konashenok 600,000 roubles (approximately US$6,700) on charges of “justifying terrorism” (Part 2, Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by Rotonda.

He was also banned from administering online pages for two years.

The trial was held behind closed doors at the request of the defence, as the addresses and phone numbers of the Konashenok family were being disclosed during the hearings. The defendant and his wife feared threats.

Konashenok was convicted over two Facebook posts about the terror attack at Crocus City Hall: “Why Crocus and not the Kremlin? Was it a mix-up?” he wrote in one. In another, he commented that the attack at a concert by the band Piknik was “too small-scale.” Konashenok later deleted these posts, but they were noticed and shared by Z-channels.

On 25 March 2024, the set designer was detained at Pulkovo Airport, from where he was planning to fly to Yerevan. He was then jailed for 14 days for “petty hooliganism” (Article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences), after which a criminal case was initiated.

Initially, Konashenok was sent to a pre-trial detention centre, but the preventive measure was later changed to a ban on certain actions.

The set designer’s wife, Roksana Shatunovskaya, worked for 13 years as the general director of St Petersburg’s New Holland public space. After her husband’s detention, she announced her resignation: “By mutual agreement between myself and my management, we have come to the decision that I can no longer hold my position or perform my duties, given that a member of my family has allowed themselves to make statements that are monstrous and incompatible with humanity,” she wrote on Instagram.