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The Supreme Court of Karachay-Cherkessia, on appeal, reduced the sentences of eight out of nine defendants in the “USSR citizens” case, one of those convicted told OVD-Info.
The decision was issued back on 4 February. According to the convicted person, the sentences were reduced as follows:
- Oleko Kuzhev—from 8 years in a general regime colony to 6 years and 1 month;
- Adnan Meremshaov—from 6.5 years in a colony to 6 years and 1 month;
- Vladimir Ilyichev and Abdulmalik Shoev—from 5 years in a colony to 3.5 years each;
- Larisa Yakusheva and Svetlana Darova—from 7 years suspended to 6 years each;
- Anita Tukova and Olga Primak—from 5 years suspended to 4 years each.
Another defendant, Aslan Naptugov, who was sentenced to 5 years in a colony, had his sentence left unchanged. He was released from the pre-trial detention centre back on 21 September 2025—two months after the verdict was announced. By that point, his sentence had been served.
Ilyichev and Shoev were released from the pre-trial detention centre on 27 February, three weeks after the appellate decision.
None of the nine defendants admit guilt. They plan to continue fighting for the complete overturn of their convictions in a cassation court.
Oleg Bondarenko and Yuliya Kambieva were also initially involved in the case. Their cases were considered separately. According to OVD-Info’s source, Bondarenko entered into a pre-trial agreement and in 2024 received a suspended sentence of 3.5 years. Kambieva’s case was separated after she was declared wanted due to failing to appear in court. As a result, she spent three months in a pre-trial detention centre. The woman admitted guilt and was given a suspended sentence of 3 years.
According to the investigators’ version, in 2019–2020, the defendants created an extremist organisation inspired by the ideas of the “Union of Slavic Forces of Russia,” which was banned by the Supreme Court of the Komi Republic. Investigators claimed they spread information online and in state institutions in Karachay-Cherkessia about the continued existence of the USSR and denied both the Russian Constitution and the legitimacy of state authority and Russian laws.
The defendants were also accused of attempting to disrupt the work of the local Rospotrebnadzor (consumer protection agency), the government of Karachay-Cherkessia and the bailiff service. For example, they demanded the repeal of COVID-19 restrictions during the pandemic, organised rallies outside the government building, and attempted to interfere with the execution of a court decision against one of the defendants.
For their activities, they allegedly created several organisations: a branch of the trade union organisation “Solidarity,” the Territorial-Clan Community “Abaza-Adyghe/Cherkess Union of Sovereign Free Clans,” the “Council of People’s Deputies,” the “State Defence Committee,” and the “Ministry of State Security of the USSR.”
Security officials named Darova, Yakusheva, and Kuzhev as leaders, charging them with creating an extremist community (Article 282.1, Part 1 of the Criminal Code). The other defendants were charged with participating in it (Article 282.2, Part 2 of the Criminal Code). Kuzhev was also charged with possession of explosives (Article 222.1, Part 1 of the Criminal Code). Meremshaov faced the same charge and an additional charge of illegal arms trafficking (Article 222, Part 3, Clause “a” of the Criminal Code).