The 1st Western District Military Court sentenced 56-year-old Andrey Bogodarov to 18 years in prison in a case over participation in the Russian Volunteer Corps. The information was reported by the project Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial.
According to the case card on the court’s website, the materials reached the court on May 15. Earlier, in August 2024, a court in St. Petersburg placed Bogodarov in pretrial detention.
Alongside the charge of participating in a terrorist organization, Bogodarov was also accused of treason and attempted manufacture of explosives and explosive devices by an organized group. It is unknown what specific actions investigators said formed the basis of the charges.
Memorial noted that the verdict in the case was delivered on June 10. According to TASS, testimony against Bogodarov was given by a student from Karelia, Andrey Vasyurenko.
In February 2024, Vasyurenko was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony on charges of incitement to treason and inducement to terrorism. The state news agency wrote that he sought a lighter sentence and began testifying against Russians allegedly linked to the work of the Russian Volunteer Corps and “other terrorist organizations of Ukraine.”
Earlier, Memorial reported that Bogodarov’s daughter lives in Kyiv and had been in a relationship with a man who served in the Russian Volunteer Corps. In March 2024, he was killed in the war in Ukraine.
According to Bogodarov’s daughter, her father gave a confession after security officers threatened to send his son to war and kill his daughter.