Five Marxists from Ufa, a major city in the Urals, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 16 to 22 years in a terrorism case.

The Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg has sentenced five members of the Ufa Marxist study group to between 16 and 22 years in prison. This was reported by Mediazona.

All were found guilty of organising or participating in a terrorist organisation (Article 205.4 of the Criminal Code), public incitement to terrorism (Article 205.2), preparation to seize power (Article 30, Article 278), and, for some of them, also of preparing to steal weapons, illegal possession of explosives, and recruiting terrorists. According to investigators, the group allegedly planned to use a “deteriorating socio-political situation” for attacks on police officers, seizing weapons, and establishing communist rule.

The Marxist group emerged in Ufa, a large city in the Urals, in 2016—members met at the Stalin Museum to discuss the works of Marx, Engels and Lenin. The prosecution’s case was partly based on the testimony of a former member, Sergey Sapozhnikov, who recorded their conversations and provided the recordings to the FSB. The defendants called him a provocateur. Chuvilin claimed that Sapozhnikov had Nazi tattoos on his body.

As material evidence, investigators presented camping equipment found with the accused: tents, sleeping mats, rucksacks, and even a small shovel. In court, Dmitriev joked that he was supposedly planning to overturn the government with a 100-rouble (US$1) shovel and a broken walkie-talkie. Matysov was found with a deactivated pistol, airsoft grenades and a hunting rifle, as well as—in the investigators' words—live grenades hidden behind a stove. Matysov himself believes the grenades were planted. Efimov had an old computer tower with a family photo archive seized, which he says later “surfaced” in the case retroactively.

The accused did not admit guilt. According to them, they were beaten and tortured after their arrest. In their final statements, they described the case as a political reprisal and the sentences requested by prosecutors as a “quiet execution.” After the verdict was announced, some of them shouted “fascists.”

Because of this case, since 2023, politician Sergey Udaltsov has been held in a remand centre. He is accused of justifying terrorism for a post in support of the group. The court has suspended consideration of his case pending the verdicts for the Ufa Marxists.