A school security guard from St Petersburg has been sentenced to five years in prison for a post about Bucha.

The Nevsky District Court in St Petersburg has sentenced school security guard Aleksandr Glushkin to five years in a penal colony in a case brought under the law on “military fakes” (part “d,” paragraph 2, article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by the city’s joint press service of the courts.

The St Petersburg resident has also been banned from administering websites for three years. The prosecutor requested that Glushkin receive seven years in prison.

The case was opened over a post about crimes committed by the Russian army in Bucha, near Kyiv. Glushkin said the post had been sent to him by a stranger: “He added me as a friend and sent the post. I went to his page, saw the post and noticed that it wasn’t blocked,” the convicted man explained.

The key witness in the case was Olga Savelyeva, a staff member at the school where Glushkin worked as a security guard. According to Savelyeva’s testimony, she found posts on Glushkin’s VKontakte page about the events in the city of Bucha. She reported this to the school administration.

In January, the Nevsky District Court in St Petersburg began hearing the case. The proceedings were initiated in February 2024, when restrictive measures were imposed on Glushkin, barring him from certain actions. Later, however, investigators decided to make the restrictions tougher and the court sent the man to a pre-trial detention centre, where he remains.

Glushkin has two underage children. After his arrest, it became more difficult for the family to cope with everyday and financial challenges. He also has a cardiovascular condition and has previously been hospitalised. Glushkin said he needs to take medicines regularly; however, in the pre-trial detention centre they gave him medicines only once, and not all of them. At the same time, his wife does not always have the opportunity to bring him the medicines he needs.