Russian fire bombers get 19 years each for recruitment center arson

Two men accused of trying to burn down a military recruitment office in Bakal were just sentenced to 19 years in prison by a Yaktering court for their role in an incident the Russian government has called an act of terror. 

Alexei Nuriyev and Roman Nasryey were found guilty of terrorism charges and are expected to spend the majority of their time behind bars in a high-security prison according to The Telegraph’s Nataliya Vasilyeva. 

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Vasilyeva added that Nuriyev, a 37-year-old firefighter, and Nasryey, a 27-year-old member of Russia’s National Guard, were out celebrating Nasryey’s birthday in the town of Bakal when they threw three Molotov cocktails at a recruitment building.  

The fire was eventually put out but according to testimony from employees of the building, the blaze threatened to destroy the military records of roughly 4000 people, something Vasilyeva said could have paralyzed the local area's effort to supply troops for the war in Ukraine. 

According to The Moscow Times, the two men threw the Molotov cocktails at the recruitment building in an act of protest against the war in Ukraine and were quickly apprehended. 

Russian law enforcement said Nuriyev and Nasryev were members of "several dozen leftist and ultra-right online communities, including those with a pro-Ukrainian nationalist orientation," according to a translation from The Moscow Times. 

The Moscow Times added that prosecutors asked for 19-year sentences for Nuriyev and Nasryeyev’s crime, a request upheld by the court, which ordered “four years in prison followed by an additional 15 years in a maximum-security correctional facility."

Both men claimed that they were coerced into pleading guilty, but that didn't save them from the new Russian anti-protest laws put in place after the war in Ukraine began. 

“Before the war, arson attacks might have been met with a suspended sentence, but Russia’s parliament amended a criminal law last year to allow prosecutors to qualify such crimes as terrorist attacks,” wrote Nataliya Vasilyeva.

The Russian News Agency, often abbreviated as TASS, noted that the 19-year sentence was one of the longest and most severe punishments given out to date in regard to an arson case that involved conscription and mobilization of buildings. 

While testifying, Nasryev tried to explain to the court the motivations behind his actions, saying that he felt it was the only way he could protest the ongoing war in Ukraine. 

“By my actions, I merely wanted to show there are people in our town who disagree with the mobilization and [the war in Ukraine],” Nasryey said according to a translation from The Telegraph. 

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The first sixth months of the war saw an unprecedented number of fire bombings according to the independent Russian media outlet MediaZona. The arson attempts died down but then were resurrected when Putin announced the partial mobilization. 

"The most common tool of arson is a Molotov cocktail. Most of the attacks did not cause significant damage, but there were a few exceptions with burnt-out buildings,” MediaZona wrote. 

Arsonists were originally charged under Article 167 of Russia’s Criminal Code, according to MediaZona, which would only result in 2 to 5 years in prison. But authorities quickly changed the definition of the crime to terrorism under Article 205, which carries a sentence of ten years to life. 

As of March 31st, there have been at least 94 firebombings of military recruitment centers or government offices according to MediaZona’s analysis.