Novikov Mikhail Aleksandrovich

17 August 2023, three friends were detained in Verkhniy Ufaley, Sverdlovsk Oblast - 20-year-old Ildar Baymukhametov and 19-year-olds Ilya Kuznetsov and Mikhail Novikov. The young people were accused of committing a terrorist act by a group of persons and preparing for a terrorist act. According to the investigation, in August 2023, Novikov received a task from a certain Taras Gursky through Kuznetsov's phone in the Telegram chat "Runners are working", whom the investigation considers to be associated with Ukraine. Initially, they offered to set fire to cell towers in Yekaterinburg, but they refused, considering the tasks too dangerous. Back then, the customer offered them 15 thousand rubles to set fire to the relay cabinet at the Keramik station. In the evening of August 15, 2023, all three arrived at the scene. Baimukhametov remained in the car, while Novikov and Kuznetsov approached the cabinet, broke it open with an axe, doused it with gasoline, and set it on fire. An explosion occurred, as a result of which Novikov received burns to his face. While fleeing, they left an axe at the scene, and one of them lost a sneaker. The defendants in the case claimed that they only wanted to earn money and denied any connection to Ukraine's interests. On August 17, 2023, the Verkh-Isetsky District Court of Yekaterinburg sent all three to a pre-trial detention center. On December 25, 2025, the Central Military District Court found the defendants guilty and sentenced Mikhail Novikov and Ilya Kuznetsov to 17 years of imprisonment each, and Ildar Baimukhametov to 15 years, the first 5 years of the sentence all three must spend in prison, and the remaining part - in a strict regime colony.