Letters are not being passed on to a defendant in the ‘Tyumen case’ at the pre-trial detention centre in Yekaterinburg, a major city in the Urals.

Paklin has been charged with organising a terrorist group and participating in it (Part 2, Article 205.4 of the Criminal Code), preparing an act of terrorism (Subclause A, Part 2, Article 205, in conjunction with Part 1, Article 30), illegal manufacturing of explosive devices (Part 3, Article 223.1), and possession of such devices (Part 4, Article 222.1).

According to the investigation, Paklin joined the terrorist organisation ‘Vanguard of People’s Will’ by March 2022 at the latest. The organisation was created by his acquaintance Nikita Oleinik. Investigators claim Paklin held “ideological discussions” with members of the group, encouraged them to oppose the state authorities, drew up manuals on handling firearms, searched for training grounds, and sought to take on the role of an executor of terrorist acts. They believe he did all this to “demonstrate the powerlessness of law enforcement agencies to fulfil their assigned tasks.”

Roman Paklin, together with five other antifascists from Surgut, Tyumen, and Yekaterinburg, was detained at the end of August and the beginning of September 2022. Criminal proceedings were launched against all of them.

According to the investigation’s version of events, Oleinik “created a terrorist group” because of “his hatred for the current state regime.” Over the course of a year, as alleged by the prosecution, he involved his friends in the group so they could “carry out terrorist activities” in Tyumen and Sverdlovsk Oblasts and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area (KhMAO).

In addition to Paklin and Oleinik, the case includes Yury Neznamov, Deniz Aydin, Danil Chertykov, and Kirill Brik. All six defendants—Neznamov and Paklin, Chertykov, Brik, Oleinik, Aydin—have reported torture and abuse following their detention. The Investigative Committee later refused to open a criminal case into Neznamov’s allegations of torture.

Brik entered into a pretrial cooperation agreement with the investigation and gave a confession, reportedly under pressure. Following this, Brik’s case was separated into a different proceeding. On 16 May, he was sentenced to eight years in prison, with the first three and a half years in a penal facility, and fined 600,000 roubles (US$6,700).

Paklin’s case was also separated into a different proceeding. In 2023, he was twice sent for psychiatric assessment. In 2024, he was declared legally incapable, diagnosed with a schizophrenia-like disorder, and his trial was put on hold. After treatment and a reassessment, Paklin was declared fit, and court proceedings resumed.

Before criminal proceedings began, Roman Paklin lived in Surgut, a city in western Siberia, and worked at Surgutneftegaz. In his free time, he was involved in a libertarian library set up by Nikita Oleinik.

On 22 July Roman Paklin reported losing sight in one eye. The support group for those involved in the ‘Tyumen case’ reported this.

According to Paklin’s relatives, he had not recently mentioned any health problems to either his lawyer or the support group. However, he did report a “rapid deterioration in eyesight” immediately after the first court hearings in the case.

“Unfortunately, at this moment it is unclear whether the loss of vision is temporary or irreversible,” the support group stated.

The group also said that Paklin is being denied medical care at Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 1 in Yekaterinburg. His defence lawyer Ilkin Amirov plans to file a complaint with the prosecutor’s office about the conditions in which the defendant is being held and the denial of medical assistance. The lawyer will seek a medical examination for Paklin.