Vitovtov Andrey Vasilevich

On December 12, 2023, in Barnaul, Altai Krai, a local resident, Andrei Vitovtov, was detained on the street. He was then taken to his apartment for a search. Authorities seized electronic devices, a collection of Soviet medals, certificates, and badges, cash, and a bank card (though law enforcement officials deny having seized the bank card). On the same day, a search was also conducted at a spare parts warehouse rented by Vitovtov.

A criminal case was opened against Vitovtov on charges of justifying terrorism. According to investigators, Vitovtov published a post on the anonymous Telegram channel “Ice Under the Major’s Feet” (3,600 subscribers) a post about the assassination attempt on propagandist Zakhar Prilepin and about drone attacks on “Moscow City”: the author of the post calls Prilepin “almost Putin’s chief hack writer” and expresses “respect” for those who organized the assassination attempt, which he calls “karma.” In the post about the drone attack, the author congratulates Russians on Ukraine’s National Flag Day.

The court sent the Barnaul resident to pretrial detention.

On October 8, 2024, the 2nd Eastern District Military Court found Andrei Vitovtov guilty and sentenced him to 6 years of imprisonment in a general-regime penal colony.

On January 13, 2025, the Military Court of Appeals upheld the sentence.

In late February 2025, it became known that a new criminal case had been opened against Vitovtov—on charges of treason and justifying terrorism in seven separate counts. The details of the charges are unknown.

On April 27, 2026, the 2nd Eastern District Military Court found Andrei Vitovtov guilty and, in conjunction with his previous sentence, sentenced him to 16 years of imprisonment; he will serve the first 5 years in prison, with the remainder to be served in a maximum-security prison. The court also fined him 250,000 rubles and banned him from administering internet resources.

The verdict was not appealed and has become final.