18:57, 17 March 2026

An Abkhazian resident was sentenced for glorifying Shamil Basayev.

A military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Abkhazian resident Timur Agrba to a lengthy prison term. Security forces discovered in his publications that glorified Shamil Basayev.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," in March 2025, security forces detained a citizen of Abkhazia and Russia born in 1988 in Sochi. It was alleged that he published content on his Telegram channel that created "glorified images" of Shamil Basayev and other Chechen field commanders—"leaders of illegal armed groups." A criminal case was opened against him under the article on public calls for terrorist activity via the internet (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code), which carries a prison sentence of five to seven years.

Shamil Basayev was a field commander during the First Chechen War and the leader of the storming of Grozny (August 1996). He also organized terrorist attacks and the hostage-taking in Budyonnovsk, Stavropol Krai (1995), the Dubrovka Theater Center in Moscow (2002), and the school in Beslan (2004, North Ossetia). He also led the militant invasion of Dagestan (1999), which marked the beginning of the Second Chechen War, and the attack on Nalchik (October 2005, Kabardino-Balkaria). He was killed on July 10, 2006. Since August 1992, he had been actively involved in military operations in Abkhazia. He was the commander of the Gagra front and deputy defense minister of Abkhazia. He commanded a detachment of Chechen volunteers, according to a biographical profile of Shamil Basayev prepared by the "Caucasian Knot."

The Southern District Military Court today sentenced Timur Agrba, finding him guilty of publicly justifying and promoting terrorism.

The verdict was based on ten posts on a publicly accessible channel he administered. Agrba made these publications between September 24 and December 4, 2024, while in the village of Primorskoye in the Gudauta District.

According to the prosecution, the publications were intended to shape readers' perceptions of the permissibility of terrorist activity motivated by political and national hatred and enmity. They created a "glorified image of the terrorist Shamil Basayev and other leaders of illegal armed groups" in Chechnya, whose activities were directed "against the security of the Russian Federation," according to a statement from the court's press service.

The court sentenced Agrba to five years and six months in a general regime penal colony. Caucasian Knot has not yet received any comments from the convict or his lawyer regarding the sentence or appeal plans.

Timur Agrba is a native of Sochi. He turned 37 in October, according to his entry in the Rosfinmonitoring register of terrorists and extremists. His data was added to the list on May 29, 2025, according to a Telegram bot tracking list updates.

Agrba administered the Telegram channel "Aҧсны Аҳәынҭқарра/Абхазия," in which he "promoted Abkhazia's rapprochement with Turkey and Georgia," wrote "extremely negatively about Russia," and proposed erecting a monument to Shamil Basayev, the publication "Zhivaya Kuban" noted in March 2025.

"Caucasian Knot" also wrote that the Russian Embassy in Sukhum in September 2024 expressed outrage over an exhibition at the State Museum of Abkhazia, which featured a portrait of Shamil Basayev with the caption: "Hero of Abkhazia." The museum promised to rectify the situation and closed access to the exhibition, and subsequently removed portraits of Basayev and four other people from the exhibition. Abkhazia must strip Shamil Basayev of his honorary titles and state awards, since "glorifying the personality of a bloody murderer" is unacceptable in a civilized society, stated Tamerlan Dzgoev, the Human Rights Commissioner for North Ossetia, in an address to the Abkhazian Ombudsman.

Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/421689