The Central District Military Court in Samara sentenced Tolyatti resident Polina Yevtushenko to 14 years in a general-regime penal colony. She was found guilty of preparing for treason, aiding terrorist activity, publicly justifying terrorism, calling for extremism, spreading “fake news” about the army, and “rehabilitating Nazism.”
According to investigators, Yevtushenko tried to persuade a Samara resident to join the Freedom of Russia Legion. Before her arrest, she maintained social media pages where, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, she posted anti-war statements.
On July 12, 2023, she was detained after taking her daughter to kindergarten. After a search of her home, she was sent to pretrial detention, where she remained until sentencing. According to the publication, she was allowed to see her child only twice while in custody, and the girl now lives with her grandmother.
On January 18, 2026, prosecutors asked the court to impose an 18-year sentence. Human rights lawyers from Pervy Otdel said the case was based on posts about avoiding mobilization, videos mentioning the Freedom of Russia Legion, publications about Ukrainian children killed in the war, and the comment “Glory to the RDK! You are heroes!”, which investigators treated as justification of terrorism.
A large part of the prosecution case, the defense said, relied on testimony from Nikolai Komarov, who met Yevtushenko on VKontakte in spring 2023. In court, he confirmed that he initiated the acquaintance, secretly recorded their conversations, and later handed the files to security services, while failing to explain technical inconsistencies in the recordings.
In her final statement on February 24, Yevtushenko asked to be released so she could raise her daughter, saying she had not committed treason and that she loved Russia.