A Crimean resident was convicted in Kuban for inciting terrorism.

The Temryuk District Court sentenced Yuri Sysoev to five years in prison for a social media post. The defendant pleaded not guilty.

Yuri Sysoev, a resident of Crimea, was charged with publicly justifying terrorism (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code carries a prison sentence of five to seven years).

According to the prosecution, in March 2022, he posted on social media "addressed to the President of the Russian Federation." Law enforcement officials found in the text of this publication "incitement to commit terrorist activity, namely, an attempt on the lives of political and government figures" of the Russian Federation, the United Press Service of the Kuban Courts reported on January 13.

"Access to this post was not restricted; it was actively viewed by social media users," the official Telegram channel noted.

Yuri Sysoyev himself pleaded not guilty. The court, however, found his guilt proven and sentenced him to five years in prison with a three-year ban on website administration after his release.

The convicted man will serve his sentence in a general regime penal colony. Sysoyev was not under arrest prior to the verdict; he was taken into custody in the courtroom.

Yuri Sysoyev is the captain of a cargo tugboat and, judging by social media, "denies the collapse of the USSR," the human rights project "Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial"* notes today.

“In 2025, Sysoev was also tried for allegedly spreading fake news about the Russian army, but the case was dismissed due to the statute of limitations. In 2022, a report was filed against him for discrediting the Russian army, but this case was also dismissed because the report did not indicate the time and place of the offense,” the project’s Telegram channel stated.

In early September 2025, the information about 64-year-old Yuri Sysoev, a native of the Vologda region, was added to the Rosfinmonitoring register of terrorists and extremists.

* are listed as foreign agents.

** Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.