Shirshikov Yaroslav Yurevich

On April 18, 2023, security forces came to search the local PR specialist Yaroslav Shirshikov in Yekaterinburg. His phone was confiscated and he was taken for interrogation at the local FSB office. During the interrogation, unknown employees demanded that Shirshikov tell the circumstances of his meeting with Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich. Shirshikov was the first to report Gershkovich's detention. According to her, telephone scammers who claimed to be FSB employees persuaded her to commit arson. Yaroslav Shirshikov was charged under the article on justification of terrorism. The reason for the criminal prosecution was posts in the Telegram channel "Gussar's Bravado, in which, according to the investigation, Shirshikov wrote that he is "against [the fact that] something explodes in cities and people die, and wished "the earth to be fiberglass" to the military correspondent Tatarsky. The next day, on April 19, Shirshikov was sent to a pre-trial detention center, but was later released on his own recognizance." On February 26, 2024, the Central Military District Court found Yaroslav Shirshikov guilty and sentenced him to two years in a general regime colony. On October 17, 2024, the Appellate Military Court increased the sentence from two to five years in prison. The court changed the qualification of the charges in part of the aggravating circumstances. According to the court's version, Shirshikov committed the "crime" out of political enmity. In 2020, Shirshikov was found guilty in a case of 'libel' against the Plenipotentiary Representative of the Ural Federal District, Nikolai Tsukanov, whom Shirshikov called a 'Polish spy'. In this case, the PR specialist was sent to a penal colony-settlement for 7 months.