A man in Kaliningrad gets two years in prison for a few Telegram posts

A man in Kaliningrad has been sentenced to two years in prison for inciting acts of terrorism, the murder of police officers, and the violent overthrow of the state in audio messages posted on the instant messenger Telegram. Alexander Petrovsky shared the recordings in a chat group called “Revolution: Kaliningrad,” but he says prosecutors used his messages out of context. The verdict was handed down in late May, but journalists only learned about it a month later.

Petrovsky was detained on November 5, when Russian law enforcement arrested roughly 400 supposed sympathizers of the banned political movement Artpodgotovka. The movement’s founder, Vyacheslav Maltsev, was arrested in absentia last summer and has lived abroad ever since. Last November, Artpodgotovka activists planned a “revolution” on the centennial of the Bolshevik Revolution.