Sociologist Kagarlitsky’s fine was replaced with five years in prison

Sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky, convicted of justifying terrorism (included in the register of foreign agents), has had his punishment increased. The Military Court of Appeal supported the position of the state prosecutor and sentenced him to five years in prison instead of the previously imposed fine of 609 thousand rubles. The defense of the sociologist, who previously called the court fine “a victory for common sense,” announced their intention to seek a complete overturning of the sentence. The Kremlin declined to comment on the verdict.

The Military Court of Appeal (Vlasikha, Moscow Region) heard the case of Boris Kagarlitsky behind closed doors; Journalists watched the process from the town’s checkpoint via video broadcast. A criminal case against Boris Kagarlitsky was initiated in July 2023 by a unit of the Russian FSB under Part 2 of Art. 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public justification of terrorism committed using information and communication networks, including the Internet). The reason was a complaint from a deputy of the Ukhta Council of the Komi Republic, Leonid Krasnoperov, who demanded a legal assessment of the video “Explosive congratulations to the cat Mostik” (published by a sociologist in October 2022). The state prosecutor in the first instance demanded that Boris Kagarlitsky be sentenced to five and a half years in prison. But the Second Western District Military Court in December 2023 limited the punishment for Boris Kagarlitsky to a fine of 609 thousand rubles. The state prosecution considered the sentence “extremely lenient” and appealed it, demanding that the sociologist be sentenced to five and a half years in prison. The Military Court of Appeal supported the position of the prosecutor’s office, assigning Boris Kagarlitsky five years in a general regime colony, and at the same time prohibiting him from administering websites for two years (this was also a requirement of the state prosecution). Mr. Kagarlitsky, who came to the hearing with his belongings, was taken into custody in the courtroom.

The sociologist was in jail from July to December 2023. In August 2023, Rosfinmonitoring included him in the list of terrorists and extremists. During the trial in the first instance, the examination found that the video published by the sociologist “contains psychological and linguistic signs of recognition of the ideology and practice of committing an explosion that frightens the population and creates a danger to people.” Mr. Kagarlitsky himself told the court the following story about the appearance of the video: during the construction of a bridge across the Kerch Strait, a cat named Mostik appeared at the construction site, which took root among the workers and became a symbol of the project. The cat was mentioned in the title of a video published by Mr. Kagarlitsky in connection with the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge on October 8, 2022 (on that day, a truck with explosives was blown up on the bridge, which led to the collapse of part of the structure). Boris Kagarlitsky assured that he had no intention of justifying the terrorist attack. “Everyone understands to the extent of their depravity,” he commented on the thinking of the authors of the examination. Mr. Kagarlitsky also told the court that after Crimea became part of the Russian Federation, he twice traveled to the peninsula to conduct opinion polls, and after the start of the SVO, he did not allow assessments of Russian foreign policy.

In July 2023, Kommersant special correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov asked Vladimir Putin: “Is it normal that people are arrested for spoken or written words?” — and cited the case of Boris Kagarlitsky as an example. The president replied that there should be “a certain attitude towards those people who cause us harm within the country,” and added that he did not know the sociologist. In October 2023, at a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, Mr. Putin was again asked about Mr. Kagarlitsky’s case, noting that he “has never been against Russia.” The President promised to look into the issue. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday found it difficult to say whether Vladimir Putin knows about the decision of the Military Court of Appeal. “We cannot comment on court decisions and will not do so,” added Mr. Peskov.

The defense of the sociologist, who previously considered the verdict of the first instance “a victory of common sense,” promised to appeal the current verdict.

“We believe that the decision was made with a large number of violations, and the court did not hear our arguments. There are grounds not only for mitigating the sentence, but also for canceling the sentence altogether,” said lawyer Sergei Erokhov. According to him, Boris Kagarlitsky “made an incorrect statement that cannot in any way be interpreted as a justification for terrorism.”

Political scientist Sergei Markov believes that Mr. Kagarlitsky is “one of the few well-known Marxists from Russia in the world,” so the verdict could lead to “a significant decrease in support for Russia in dozens of countries”: “All smart people sometimes say stupid things. This way we can transplant all the smart ones.” The daughter of a sociologist, Ksenia Kagarlitskaya, said that her father did not plan to leave Russia.

Alexander Voronov