Yekaterinburg Man Faces Additional 4.5 Years in Prison for Pro-War Comments About Killing Critics

A military court in Yekaterinburg has handed down an additional sentence of four and a half years to a man already imprisoned for allegedly praising the murders of notable pro-war figures, as reported by the exiled news outlet Mediazona on Wednesday.

Alexander Neustroev, 59, is currently serving a three-year sentence in a medium-security penal colony for disorderly conduct after he verbally attacked an 11-year-old boy for wearing a hat adorned with the pro-war “Z” symbol.

Prosecutors accused Neustroev of endorsing the assassinations of Daria Dugina, the daughter of Russian nationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin, and war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky during a discussion with fellow inmates in April.

In court, Neustroev referred to this conversation as “the biggest mistake of my life” and expressed his complete loyalty to the Russian government.

Despite this, the Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg found him guilty of “justifying terrorism” after just one hearing. Mediazona noted that Neustroev had requested a swift trial.

Prosecutors urged the judge to require that he serve the initial three years of his sentence in a standard prison before being transferred to a high-security facility. Neustroev, who suffers from a chronic liver condition, requested to remain at his current penal colony to continue receiving medical treatment.

These requests were denied by the judge, who ruled that Neustroev must complete the entirety of his four-and-a-half-year sentence in a maximum-security prison.