Switch Language

This translation was made by AI

A new criminal case on “justifying terrorism” (part 1 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) has been opened against anti-war activist Ivan Kudryashov, who is serving a sentence for a case involving the planned arson of a military recruitment office. He is currently being held in Tver Pre-Trial Detention Centre No.1. This was reported by “Solidarity Zone.”

The new case is connected to an anti-war text titled “Against the ‘Special Military Operation,’” which Kudryashov read aloud to other prisoners in Penal Colony No.1 in Bolshiye Peremeryki, a settlement near Tver, in February 2026. In the text, Kudryashov discussed partisan actions and said that there should be more people who “derail wagons and trains” and set fire to power stations. He referred to the explosion of the Crimean Bridge, the killings of Russian generals and Vladlen Tatarsky as “Ukrainian military targets” rather than terrorist acts. Four people listened to the activist.

Investigators regarded these statements as “justifying terrorism.” Kudryashov was charged in August. Under the new article, he faces up to five years in prison. Under the previous sentence, he was due to be released in 2027.

  • Kudryashov worked as a metalworker at a wagon repair factory. In spring 2022, he staged solo anti-war protests in Tver—a city northwest of Moscow—making the now well-known street art “Fuck the War.”
  • After mobilisation was announced in September 2022, Kudryashov received a draft notice and was detained the same day. Law enforcement accused him of planning to set fire to a military recruitment office. The activist himself said that Federal Security Service officers planted incendiary mixtures on him, tortured him with electric shocks, and tried to force a confession.
  • In June 2023, Kudryashov was sentenced to six years in prison. The sentence was later reduced to four years and ten months. While in detention, Kudryashov went on hunger strike and was several times placed in prison psychiatric hospitals. In February 2025, he was returned to prison after five months elsewhere.
  • The human rights project “Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial” has recognised Ivan Kudryashov as a political prisoner.