A person convicted in the case of setting fire to a military recruitment office has been released from the penal colony.

Vladimir Vladimirov, a resident of Kirov (a city in the Urals), who had been convicted in the case of setting fire to a mobile military recruitment centre, was released from the penal colony on 16 June. OVD-Info learned this from Vladimirov’s pen pal, whom he called after his release.

The man served his sentence in Penal Colony No. 17 in the Kirov region.

In December 2023, Vladimirov was sentenced to two years in a penal colony. He was found guilty of public acts aimed at discrediting the army that resulted in damage to property (part 2, article 280.3 of the Russian Criminal Code).

According to investigators, in August 2023, the Kirov resident set fire to a tent that housed a military recruitment point for contract service. He also filmed the burning tent on his phone and sent the video to acquaintances. The fire was put out quickly, and about a two-by-two metre section of the tent was burned. The damage caused by the arson was estimated at 23,000 roubles (about US$250).

Vladimirov partially admitted guilt. He said he was drunk and, out of curiosity, looked into the tent window. Using a lighter, he tried to see what was inside. As a result, he accidentally set the tent on fire and recorded it on his phone so that, “in the morning [he could] confess.”

According to Vladimirov, he did not know that the tent housed a military recruitment centre, and only noticed symbols of the Ministry of Defence after the fire started. Baza reported that the man was detained at the scene. According to the verdict, he told the police: “When the Putin regime is replaced, all of you, cops, will hang from lampposts.”

Security forces argued that Vladimirov had discredited the army because there were messages in which he “spoke negatively about the political system in Russia and Russian citizens, including the words ‘Putler’ and ‘Rashist orcs,’” and “expressed his willingness to join Ukrainian armed groups.” The Kirov resident himself said he sent these messages “as a joke only” and “in reality approves of the use of the Russian Armed Forces in the special military operation.”