Kazakh Citizen Sentenced to 16 Years in Russia on Espionage and Sabotage Charges

As the court established, Artur Martynov transmitted coordinates of objects to Ukrainian intelligence and set fire to communication towers, Orda.kz reports.

The First Western District Military Court in St. Petersburg sentenced 28-year-old Kazakh citizen Artur Martynov to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony.

According to Mediazona, Martynov was found guilty of several charges at once: espionage, sabotage, training to commit sabotage and terrorist acts, aiding terrorism, and attempted terrorist act.

According to the prosecution, he acted ‘under cover’ and on instructions from the Ukrainian special services, for money he transmitted the coordinates of an oil refinery in St. Petersburg and participated in the arson of infrastructure facilities,
Mediazona reports.

The investigation claims that, in 2023, he set fire to cell towers in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, damaged a switchboard, a power cable, and allegedly tried to attack a transformer substation. The prosecution relies, among other things, on correspondence in instant messengers and testimony about undergoing distance "training."

Martynov does not admit his guilt. There has been no reaction from the official authorities of Kazakhstan yet.

Back in May, we wrote that Kazakh student Garri Azaryan was arrested in St. Petersburg on suspicion of terrorism. He allegedly called for a violent change of power at meetings of the left-wing radical movement.

Original Author: Ruslan Loginov