A resident of Adygea was convicted of financing extremists.

A court in Adygea has fined a local resident who was caught transferring money to an extremist organization.

The criminal prosecution of the Adygea resident was based on the results of investigations conducted by the FSB and the economic department of the republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs.

According to investigators, the man, while in Adygea from August 2021 to February 2022, financially supported a "non-profit organization" designated as extremist in Russia through money transfers. The court sentenced him to a fine of 350,000 rubles "with confiscation of funds used to finance extremist activities," the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for Adygea reported.

The agency did not specify which organization was involved, how many transfers the defendant made over the course of six months, or their total amount. The investigators' report also did not provide information about the man's age or occupation, nor did it indicate whether he admitted to the charges. Caucasian Knot has not yet received any comments from the defendant or his lawyer regarding the court's verdict.

The maximum penalty under the article on financing extremist activity (Part 1 of Article 282.3 of the Russian Criminal Code) is three to eight years in prison. Residents of southern Russia have been repeatedly prosecuted under this article for donating to the Anti-Corruption Foundation*; the organization was designated as extremist in August 2021, so transfers made since then have served as the basis for the prosecution of donors.

"Caucasian Knot" wrote that in September 2025, the Anapa District Court sentenced Alexander Protasov to a fine of 500,000 rubles for transferring 500 rubles to the FBK*. Earlier, Krasnodar resident Sergey Anosov received a fine of 600,000 rubles for donating 2,100 rubles to the FBK*, and Ilya Bazikalov from Astrakhan was sentenced to a fine of 500,000.

At the end of May 2025, the court sentenced Krasnodar resident Dmitry Dyba to eighteen months of forced labor; his donations amounted to 1,050 rubles. The regional court subsequently overturned the sentence and remitted Dyba's case for a new trial. Following the review, which took place in March, Dyba was fined 300,000 rubles.

* "("Caucasian Knot" can provide the name of the organization upon request)" (FBK) is included in the register of foreign agents, recognized as extremist, and banned in the Russian Federation. The foundation's founder, Alexei Navalny, was added to the Rosfinmonitoring list of extremists and terrorists and was sentenced to 19 years in prison on extremism charges. He died in prison in February 2024. Navalny is recognized as a "prisoner of conscience." The "Caucasian Knot" article "Navalny: The Caucasian Dimension" outlines the opposition leader's views on issues related to the Caucasus.

** The activities of Meta (which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) are banned in Russia.