At the end of the special operation – Newspaper Kommersant No. 198 (7399) dated 10/25/2022

In Nizhny Novgorod, the court sent the National Bolshevik Ramazan Suleymanov to a colony-settlement immediately after he returned from the combat zone. Earlier, Mr. Suleimanov was sentenced to a year of hard labor for insulting a judge who arrested his friend for organizing pickets. However, after the entry of Russian troops into the territory of Ukraine, the National Bolshevik volunteered for the special operation zone. When Mr. Suleimanov returned to the city, the court commuted the unfulfilled sentence to three months’ imprisonment in a colony-settlement. The activist said that “with a calm soul” he will serve this term.

In the fall of 2020, the coordinator of the Nizhny Novgorod cell of the unregistered party The Other Russia E. V. Limonova, Yuri Staroverov, organized a series of single pickets. Judge of the Nizhny Novgorod District Court Mikhail Antonov appointed him five days of arrest under the “rally” article of the Code of Administrative Offenses. After that, a poster appeared on the fence of the court with a poetic inscription containing an insult to Mr. Antonov. The investigation opened a case of contempt of court (part 2 of article 297 of the Criminal Code). Later, investigators detained National Bolshevik Ramazan Suleymanov, and his house was searched. At the trial, they stated that they had identified him from CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts. The defense of the National Bolsheviks insisted that it was impossible to understand from the video recording who exactly hung the banner on the fence. Molecular genetic fingerprinting forensic examination did not prove that Suleimanov touched the poster. Nevertheless, in July 2021, the activist was found guilty of insulting a judge and sentenced to a year of corrective labor with the transfer of 15% of his earnings to the state.

However, in February 2022, President Putin sent Russian troops into the territory of Ukraine, and Ramazan Suleymanov voluntarily went on a special operation, interrupting the execution of corrective labor. He joined the Bars-8 squad; on social networks, the National Bolsheviks regularly talked about combat everyday life and reported on dead and wounded comrades. Among the dead was his sister Zemfira Suleymanova, also a member of the National Bolsheviks. She came to Donetsk to volunteer, but on August 15 the car she was in was hit by an anti-tank mine. Later, Mr. Suleimanov himself focused on collecting humanitarian aid.

Recently, the National Bolsheviks returned to Nizhny Novgorod, where they held a rally in support of the “Ukrainian campaign of Russia.” In the meantime, the prosecutor’s office and inspectors from the Federal Penitentiary Service appealed to the Avtozavodsky District Court, indicating that Mr. Suleymanov evaded execution of the sentence. They asked to change the sentence to two months and 25 days of imprisonment in a colony-settlement, and the court granted this request. The decision came as no surprise to the National Bolsheviks. “In February, when the mess began, it became clear that I did not want to carry out the sentence! Working, working and working, I will miss all the fun, ”he wrote on social networks. Mr. Suleimanov added that he was well aware of the legal consequences of his decision to go to the front: “I remember that I was worried then that the damn criminal would prevent me from doing all this.” He urged his associates not to protest against the decision of the court: “I have done all my “earthly affairs” so far, I sit down with a calm soul. Posters “Freedom to Suleymanov” should not be made.” Party comrades in their statement wished Ramazan Suleymanov “to have a good rest and return to duty”, and “inspectors, bailiffs and the judge” were offered to “replace Ramazan at the front or humanitarian mission in shelled Donetsk”.

Roman Ryskal, Nizhny Novgorod