A Volgograd resident was sentenced to prison for comments about Russians and Azerbaijanis.
A military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Volgograd Region resident Tigran Armenakyan to five years in prison for publicly justifying terrorism and inciting extremism on a messenger app.
Armenakyan was charged with three counts of publicly justifying terrorism on the internet (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code carries a sentence of five to seven years in prison) and one count of inciting extremism (Part 2 of Article 280 of the Russian Criminal Code, which carries a sentence of up to five years in prison).
According to the prosecution, Tigran Armenakyan, while at home in Volgograd, posted three comments in a publicly accessible messenger channel, which security officials found to contain "signs of justifying the terrorist activity" of the RDK* and LSR* terrorist organizations, both banned in Russia. The first of these comments was written on May 30, 2023, and the other two on January 1 and February 17, 2024, the press service of the Southern District Military Court reported on its Telegram channel.
The episode regarding calls for extremism pertains to September 1, 2023, when Armenakyan, according to the prosecution, published two text messages inciting hostile and violent acts against Russians and Azerbaijanis.
The court sentenced Tigran Armenakyan to five years in a general regime penal colony. The court's press service did not specify whether he pleaded guilty. Caucasian Knot has not yet received any comments from the convicted man or his lawyer regarding the sentence or plans to appeal.
Tigran Armenakyan, a native of Zhirnovsk in the Volgograd region, turned 32 on April 5, according to his entry in the Rosfinmonitoring register of terrorists and extremists. According to a message from a Telegram bot tracking updates to this list, Armenakyan's details were added on April 30, 2025.
"Caucasian Knot" also reported that a court in December sentenced Volgograd native Ramil Salmanov to three years in prison on similar charges.
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* The organization is designated as a terrorist organization and is banned in Russia.
** Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.