Volgograd resident Igor Paskar has been sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for hurling a Molotov cocktail into the local FSB (Federal Security Service) building, as reported by the Zone of Solidarity human rights project on May 31st.
Igor Paskar, a resident of Volgograd, has been sentenced by the Southern Military Court for committing acts of terrorism and politically motivated vandalism. Paskar will spend the first three years of his term in prison, followed by another three years in a maximum-security penal colony.
On June 14, 2022, the activist painted his face in the colors of the Ukrainian flag and threw a bottle containing an incendiary mixture onto the porch of the FSB building in Krasnodar. Subsequently, he was apprehended by law enforcement officers. In late August, Paskar was accused of setting fire to a banner with the letter Z [a symbol of Russian troops in Ukraine] and the inscription: "We do not abandon our own." According to law enforcement officials, this act was committed on June 12.
In his final statement, Paskar said that he hadn’t changed his beliefs in the year spent behind bars and had no regrets.
Following his detention, Igor Paskar alleged instances of torture. He claimed that law enforcement officers placed a bag over his head, physically assaulted him, subjected him to electric shocks, and attempted sexual assault using an unidentified object.
In 2022, law enforcement recorded 77 attempted arson attacks on administrative buildings. One of the most recent incidents occurred on May 14, when a 19-year-old resident of Murmansk doused the city's military registration office with a flammable liquid and set it ablaze.
