A native of Novocherkassk received a sentence for three comments

The military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Vyacheslav Grishin, a native of Novocherkassk, to a real prison term, whose comments were seen by law enforcement as calls for extremism and justification of terrorism.

Grishin, who lived in Rostov-on-Don, was charged with three episodes of public justification of terrorism on the internet (part 2 of article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for a sentence of five to seven years) and one episode of calls for extremism (part 2 of article 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, up to five years of imprisonment).

The basis for the criminal prosecution of Vyacheslav Grishin were three comments in open news channels. The first of them he left on July 26, 2023, under a message about the expulsion of Russian embassy staff from Moldova. According to the prosecution's version, Grishin called for "discriminatory actions" against a certain social group.

On December 17, 2024, Grishin commented on the news about the explosion of the head of the radiation, chemical, and biological protection troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The explosion, which the investigation declared a terrorist act, occurred on the same day, and Grishin "positively assessed the actions in question," reported the press service of the Southern District Military Court.

According to the prosecution's version, on March 13, 2025, Grishin again left a comment with a positive assessment - this time "under a message about the terrorist activities of the banned terrorist Ukrainian paramilitary group 'Legion 'Freedom of Russia'*.

In court, Grishin pleaded guilty on all counts. The court sentenced him to six years in a general regime colony.

Vyacheslav Grishin is 57 years old, he was born in Novocherkassk, according to the record in the register of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring. His data was included in the list on April 6, the Telegram bot tracking updates to the list indicates.

The comments of Grishin and his lawyer regarding the verdict and plans for appeal are not yet available to the 'Caucasian Knot'.

'Caucasian Knot' reported that courts in southern Russia regularly sentence local residents to real terms in prison for publications on social networks under the article on justification of terrorism via the internet. It is impossible to establish the real number of such sentences, as not all cases of justification of terrorism make it into public court registries.

On July 31, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don found a resident of Astrakhan guilty of public calls for terrorism and extremism, sentencing him to three years in prison.

* the organization is recognized as terrorist and banned in Russia.

** the activities of the company Meta (which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) are banned in Russia.