An anarchist who had already been convicted was sentenced in a second criminal case for reading materials from the first case.

A military court in Chita has sentenced Alexander Snezhkov to five years’ imprisonment, “partially combining the new sentence with the previous one,” his support group has reported.

It is not specified what exact punishment the anarchist received solely for the second case—justifying terrorism. He will have to spend the first three years in prison and the remainder in a high-security penal colony.

A new case was initiated against Snezhkov due to conversations with cellmates. According to the investigators, he read them excerpts from materials from his first criminal case.

Snezhkov’s defence believes that the administration of Penal Colony No. 10 in Krasnokamensk may have fabricated the new charges because he refused to “cooperate.” Since the start of the year, Snezhkov has spent more than 90 days in disciplinary isolation, and in July he was transferred to a punishment cell.

The cellmates who testified against the anarchist did not confirm that his actions could have “inspired them towards extremism.” Previously, he stated that, while held in Detention Centre No. 1 in Chita, someone who was cooperating with the administration was placed in his cell. This cellmate started questioning the anti-fascist about why he was there and recorded the conversation on a dictaphone.

On 16 February 2026, a military appeals court reduced anarchist Alexander Snezhkov’s sentence by six months in his second criminal case, as reported by human rights activist Alexey Pryanishnikov.

His sentence was reduced to four and a half years in a penal colony.

• In April 2024, Snezhkov was sentenced to six years in a penal colony. Two others were also involved in the case: Lyubov Lizunova and Vladislav Vishnevsky. Lizunova received a three-year colony sentence, and Vishnevsky got one and a half years of forced labour. Snezhkov and Vishnevsky were found guilty under the article on vandalism motivated by political hatred (part 2, article 214 of the Criminal Code); the prosecution against Lizunova under this article was dropped, as she was a minor. All three were also convicted under charges of calling for extremism (part 2, article 280 of the Criminal Code) and for terrorism-related offences (part 2, article 205.2 of the Criminal Code).
• Snezhkov and Lizunova were detained in autumn 2022 in Chita—a major city in the Russian Far East—on suspicion of creating anti-war graffiti and running the Telegram channels ‘75zlo’ and ‘Shugan-25,’ where information was published about protests against the war in Ukraine, guerrilla actions and animal rights. Initially, both were released under a travel ban, but after being detained in Omsk and Irkutsk, the pretrial restrictions were tightened. The young man was then sent to a remand centre, and Lizunova was placed under house arrest. In April 2024, the tenth-grade student was sent to a remand centre after arriving home two hours late.