On 18 December Rostov military court sentenced anarchist Roman Shvedov to sixteen years of penal colony for attacking an administrative building in protest against the war in Ukraine. Five hours after the sentencing, Shvedov was found dead in his cell by a prison guard. The official explanation of the Russian authorities is suicide. However, it is unclear what actually happened, as there is very little information known so far.

The Russian state accused Shvedov of throwing a petrol canister into the administration building of Zimovnisky district, Rostov Oblast in September 2022. According to Russian secret police, he did this to “destabilize authority, influence their decisions, and protest against the special military operation and mobilization in Russia”. He was sentenced under terrorist charges, in another attempt to scare those contemplating further resistance to the war. In 2023 Shvedov denied any legal support from Solidarity Zone and it was suggested that “he will rot in prison and there is nothing that can be done to help him.”

Russian human rights organization OVD Info reports that, as of September 2024, there were at least 1,116 criminal cases against anti-war dissidents. According to a recent UN report “since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, torture has become a State-sanctioned tool of systematic oppression, used to control and to stifle dissent, and attack the foundations of human rights and civic space in Russia”