An elderly man was sentenced to nine years in prison for making donations to “Artpodgotovka.”

The 2nd Eastern District Military Court has sentenced 63-year-old Krasnoyarsk resident Sergei Ninikin to nine years in prison. This was reported by Mediazona, citing the court’s press service.

Ninikin was found guilty under charges of financing an extremist organisation and assisting terrorist activities (Part 1, Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code and Part 1, Article 205.1 of the Criminal Code). For the first two years, the elderly man will serve his sentence in prison, and the remainder in a high-security penal colony.

According to the prosecution in Zabaykalsky Krai (a region in eastern Siberia), highlighted by Mediazona, between 2021 and March 2024 Ninikin made over 40 transfers totalling 95,000 rubles (about US$1,000) to “one of the extremist organisations, which was later also designated as terrorist.”

The outlet notes that Ninikin’s lawyer, Sergei Zhilyakov, appears in users’ contact lists under names such as “Sergei the Police Officer,” “Sergey Detective,” or “Investigator.”

• The “Artpodgotovka” movement emerged from supporters of politician Vyacheslav Maltsev, who ran a YouTube channel under the same name and announced a revolution for 5 November 2017. However, Maltsev left Russia in the summer of that year. Days before the declared revolution, a court designated “Artpodgotovka” as an extremist organisation, and its supporters began to be detained. In 2021, “Artpodgotovka” was added to the list of terrorist organisations.