A Shakhty resident was convicted of treason.

Vitaly Kucherov, a resident of the Rostov region, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison. The court found him guilty of attempting to join a Ukrainian armed group.

Vitaly Kucherov, a resident of the Rostov region, has been found guilty of attempting to join a terrorist organization and preparing for treason (Part 1 of Article 30, Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and Part 1 of Article 30, Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), the press service of the Southern District Military Court reported today.

According to the investigation and the court, on May 29, 2024, while at his place of residence in Shakhty, Kucherov submitted an application to join the banned Ukrainian terrorist paramilitary organization "Legion of Freedom of Russia", providing his personal information. That same day, he "received a response from an unidentified member of the LSR confirming that his application had been accepted for consideration, confirming his intention to become a member of the aforementioned terrorist organization." He then researched information about the optimal and safest route to Ukraine through Belarus and Poland, and on July 11, he purchased a train ticket from Rostov-on-Don to Minsk.

On July 15, 2024, Kucherov was stopped by officers of the KGB of the Republic of Belarus and returned to the Russian Federation to develop a new route to Ukraine. He was detained in Rostov-on-Don on July 29. He was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in a maximum security penal colony, with the first three years to be served in prison, the report stated.

"Caucasian Knot" wrote that several residents of Kuban were convicted in cases with a similar plot regarding the intention to join the banned "Freedom of Russia Legion." Thus, in early October, a military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced five years in a maximum security prison to Igor Yakovenko. Later in October, Krasnodar resident Marat Barashkin received a seven-year sentence and Alexey Orlov from Tuapse was sentenced to eight years .