A military court is hearing the case of a man from the Urals over his words: “We need to burn Moscow along with the country’s leadership.”

The Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg is hearing the case of Evgeny Kononenko, a resident of the settlement of Tugulym in the Urals, who posted an approving comment under a news item about an individual who set fire to a military enlistment office. Mediazona reports this from the courtroom.

The man is charged under the article on justifying terrorism online (Part 2, Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code). According to investigators, in October 2023, Kononenko wrote the phrase: “Absolutely right! We need to burn Moscow along with the country’s leadership” under a post in the “ChP Tyumen” group on VKontakte.

The post that Kononenko commented on was about Vladislav Borisenko from Nizhnevartovsk, a city in Western Siberia. In January 2023, Borisenko was sentenced to 12 years in prison for alleged involvement in setting fire to a local military enlistment office.

Kononenko was detained on 25 February 2025. According to Mediazona, at first, he was accused of several comments he had left on VKontakte, which were read out in court: “For Putin, for his throne, just don’t forget the body bags,” “Glory to Ukraine,” “It’s hard to feel sorry for such idiots, they went to kill their own people,” and “They are going to kill for money.”

The man confirmed that he had written these comments and admitted his guilt. In the end, investigators decided that only the comment under the story about the enlistment office arsonist constituted a criminal offence.

“I didn’t want to incite anyone to anything, but since the expert considered that I was justifying terrorism, I can’t argue with that. They would know better,” Kononenko said in court, as quoted by the outlet.

The criminal case also includes a conviction of Kononenko for non-payment of child support, which has not yet entered into force (Article 157 of the Criminal Code). Mediazona reports that he previously lived in Kogalym (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, in Siberia), but then moved to Tugulym, where he hid from child support payments. In court, the man also said he had problems with his spine and has implants in the cervical section of his neck.