Man beaten in police custody for burning Quran gets 13.5 years for ‘treason’ against Russia in separate case

The man convicted this February of burning a copy of the Quran had another 13.5 years added to his prison sentence on Monday. Factoring in time already served, Nikita Zhuravel will spend the next 14 years incarcerated following a court ruling in Volgograd.

Police arrested Zhuravel in May 2023 for burning a Quran in front of Volgograd’s Cathedral Mosque, supposedly in coordination with Ukraine’s intelligence community, in an alleged scheme to incite sectarian conflict. Almost immediately, officials transferred him to Grozny, where Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s son Adam infamously beat him up in police custody.

Zhuravel later confessed to offending religious sensitivities but denied any motives of religious hatred. In October 2024, several months after his first conviction, prosecutors charged Zhuravel with volunteering to collaborate with Ukraine’s security services. Officials accused him of providing Kyiv with videos of Russian military equipment and aircraft, including the movements of a specific vehicle in the unit.