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On 6 August, the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court sentenced 35-year-old Nikolai Zevakhin to four years in a general-regime penal colony on charges of participating in the activities of an extremist organisation (Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code) and incitement to terrorism (Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by activist Ilya Myaskovsky and covered by the media outlet 7×7.
According to investigators, Zevakhin corresponded with a supporter of the Artpodgotovka movement. Investigators allege that on 9 May 2023, he planned to take part in the movement’s “Victory Balloons” action. This involved the mass release of bunches of balloons in cities across Russia, with strips of foil attached to them, in order to “complicate the work of air defence systems,” security forces noted.
On the eve of Victory Day, media reported that five participants in the action, said to be among the organisers, had been detained. However, the Nizhny Novgorod region was not among those where activists were reported to have been searched.
The case against Zevakhin for incitement to terrorism was brought over two posts in the “Revolution” channel, according to Myaskovsky. The FSB alleges that the group was administered by Elena Markova, a supporter of Vyacheslav Maltsev, who was also detained after the “Victory Balloons” action.
“One post discussed Navalny’s death, and ‘Nik’ [Nikolai Zevakhin] commented that ‘for one Lekha, you could kill a hundred Putinist [officials].’ Today he stated that he absolutely condemns his former self who wrote those words. He called his earlier thoughts about poisoning officials utter nonsense. <…> Nikolai told the court during questioning that he hadn’t considered how people might react and hadn’t intended to seriously incite anyone to such actions,” said Ilya Myaskovsky.
Nikolai Zevakhin was arrested in July 2024. At the end of the month, Rosfinmonitoring added him to the list of “terrorists and extremists.” The man pleaded guilty. His lawyer, Kristina Tyurina, stated during closing arguments that “the defendant loves his homeland, supports the ‘special military operation,’ and backs government policy.”
She also said that claims about Zevakhin’s negative statements about the war, made by a friend who gave evidence as a witness, were “false accusations motivated by self-interest.” According to the lawyer, the man stole equipment worth about one million rubles (approximately US$11,000) from Zevakhin’s workplace and “wanted control” over Zevakhin’s company “Etalon,” which manufactures safes.
The prosecutor requested a six-year sentence for Nikolai Zevakhin, including two and a half years in prison. His wife and child remain at liberty.