The Frunzensky District Court of St. Petersburg sentenced 35-year-old factory worker Pavel Ognev to one and a half years in a strict-regime penal colony in a case over calls for extremism. Mediazona learned of the ruling.
Prosecutors had asked the court to impose a harsher sentence of four years in a strict-regime colony. The court, however, handed down a shorter term.
The case was heard under a special procedure, meaning the defendant admitted guilt and the defense did not present evidence of his innocence.
According to the case materials, the criminal charges stemmed from two comments that investigators said contained calls for physical violence and the killing of residents of the Caucasus and representatives of Central Asian peoples. The file also includes interview records from users who saw those comments.
“I truly do repent for what I did. I committed a terrible, bad act. I want to apologize to those citizens whom I may have hurt and insulted with my words. Please forgive me. Your Honor, I really am a decent citizen. I have understood a great deal while in detention,” Ognev said in his final statement.
The prosecution’s request for a strict-regime sentence was tied to an outstanding conviction: in 2016, Ognev was sentenced to 3.5 years in a drug purchase case.
Ognev is originally from Yekaterinburg. For the past year and a half, he had worked in St. Petersburg at the Vozrozhdenie factory as a CNC machine operator. He was detained on August 21, 2025, and had remained in pretrial detention since then. The court counted that time toward his sentence on a day-for-day basis.