The Supreme Court of Crimea sentenced a resident of St. Petersburg to six years in a strict regime colony for a failed attempt at treason. So the three judges assessed his desire to move to Ukraine in order to fight as part of volunteer units against the armed forces of the Russian Federation. To implement his plan, the man decided to swim over 180 km from the Black Sea region of the peninsula to Odessa, but was caught by border guards.
As Kommersant was told in the Supreme Court of Crimea, this is a forty-year-old resident of St. Petersburg (name not disclosed), who opposed a special military operation. In this regard, last summer, according to the FSB, he decided to go to Ukraine to take part in the hostilities against the Russian armed forces. The man contacted via the Internet with representatives of a volunteer military unit who are recruiting recruits, including those with a Russian passport, and received from them a detailed guide to action, in which it was proposed to cross the state border of the Russian Federation through the Bryansk region. However, this attempt was not successful.
Then a backup plan was used, according to which a resident of St. Petersburg had to go to the Crimea in order to swim across from there to Odessa. To do this, he purchased a professional wetsuit, fins, a wrist compass, an underwater flashlight and bags made of waterproof fabric, in which he packed a camouflage uniform and berets.
The case file notes that the man tried to swim across the Black Sea on August 6, 2022, but two days later he was identified and taken aboard a border guard ship near the village of Olenevka on the western coast of the peninsula.
During interrogation, he stated that he tried to observe secrecy measures in order to remain unnoticed.
A criminal case was initiated against him under Part 1 of Art. 30 (“Preparation for a crime”), art. 275 (“High treason”) and part 3 of Art. 30, part 1, art. 322 (“Illegal crossing of the state border of the Russian Federation”) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
The Supreme Court of Crimea took into account the fact that his illegal activities aimed at committing high treason in the form of going over to the side of the enemy were not brought to an end due to circumstances beyond his control and stopped at the preparation stage.
“In terms of the totality of crimes, by absorbing a less severe punishment by a more severe one, the court appointed him a final sentence of six years in prison to be served in a penal colony with a strict regime. Also, the defendant was sentenced to additional punishment in the form of restriction of freedom for one year after serving the prison term,” the press service of the court specified. The three judges considered the case of the traitor rather quickly – from February 14.
In mid-February, another native of St. Petersburg, who opposed the special operation, was sentenced to five and a half years in a strict regime colony and forced observation by a psychiatrist in the Supreme Court of Crimea on a similar charge. He was detained in Simferopol.