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The Southern District Military Court has sentenced 67-year-old Crimean activist Oleg Prikhodko to 18 years and six months in prison on charges of aiding terrorism (part 1.1 of article 205.1 of the Criminal Code) and incitement to attempted high treason (part 4 of article 33, part 3 of article 30, article 275 of the Criminal Code). This is already the fourth sentence handed down to the activist, reports “Mediazona.”

According to the FSB, while Prikhodko was serving his sentence in Penal Colony No. 2 in Krasnodar Krai, he allegedly suggested to other inmates that they sign a contract with the Ministry of Defence and go to fight in Ukraine, with a plan to then shoot their commanders and surrender to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The accusations were based on testimony from an anonymous prisoner.

Previous cases against Prikhodko

Prikhodko is a blacksmith from Crimea and a participant in the Maidan. After the annexation of the peninsula, he openly supported Ukraine, refused to change his Ukrainian number plates on his car, and hung a Ukrainian flag on his house.

  • In October 2019, he was detained on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack. According to the investigation, the activist was allegedly planning to blow up the city administration building in Saky, a town in Crimea. Prikhodko himself maintained that the explosive materials found during a search had been planted by security officers. In March 2021, he was sentenced to five years in a strict regime penal colony.
  • In spring 2022, the court added another month to Prikhodko’s sentence on charges of insulting a participant in a court hearing. The reason was remarks the activist made to an FSB officer who testified as a witness in his first case.
  • In November 2023, Prikhodko was given four and a half years in a penal colony on charges of justifying terrorism and rehabilitating Nazism. The charges were based on reports from cellmates at “Vladimirsky Central,” the high-security prison where the activist was being held.

Prikhodko’s daughter, Natalia Shevtsova, said that while in detention her father was repeatedly tortured with electric shocks, regularly sent to punitive isolation, and denied medical care.

The project “Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial” recognises Oleg Prikhodko as a political prisoner.