An elderly man from Nizhny Tagil has been accused of organising attacks on managers at Uralvagonzavod.

The closing arguments have concluded at the Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg in the case of 65-year-old Andrey Fogel. Prosecutors have requested compulsory treatment for the activist from Nizhny Tagil in a case concerning an attempted creation of a terrorist organisation (Part 1, Article 30 and Part 1, Article 205.4 of the Russian Criminal Code). This was reported by Mediazona.

Fogel was detained in January 2024. According to the investigation, he allegedly attempted to set up a terrorist cell, with objectives that included attacks on senior managers at Uralvagonzavod and the “elimination of the country’s leadership.” To realise these plans, he allegedly intended to recruit members of the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardiya).

The key witness for the prosecution was Pavel Sergienya, a worker at Uralvagonzavod and a member of the independent trade union Solidarity. Mediazona found out that he had already appeared as a figure in the case of journalist Evan Gershkovich.

In the summer of 2023, it was Sergienya who suggested that Fogel should hold seminars on the theory of socialism at his home. Officers from the Russian National Guard attended these meetings. Over time, the gatherings evolved into discussions about intimidation actions, including possible attacks on the chief of police. Sergienya secretly recorded all conversations on a dictaphone and passed the recordings to the FSB security service.

In January last year, Sergienya and Russian National Guard officer Andrey Verezubov staged an arson attack on the car of a female factory manager. Immediately after this, the elderly activist was arrested.

Fogel remains the only defendant in the case. Sergienya and six Russian National Guard officers who took part in the seminars are listed as prosecution witnesses. The defence argues that Sergienya’s actions were provocative and points out that an undercover officer does not have the right to incite others to commit offences.

Andrey Fogel joined the Nizhny Tagil branch of the For a New Socialism movement in spring 2022. The movement was founded in 2019 by diplomat and political scientist Nikolai Platoshkin. In May 2021, Moscow’s Gagarinsky District Court handed Platoshkin a five-year suspended sentence, finding him guilty of inciting mass unrest and spreading false information.

Fogel is due to give his final statement on 14 October.