SAMARA, August 18, /TASS/. The Volga District Military Court in Samara has sentenced former intelligence colonel Vladimir Kvachkov, currently serving his 8-year prison term for an attempt to organize an armed uprising, to 1.5 years in prison for inciting hatred, TASS reports from the courtroom.

"The Volga District Military Court has found Kvachkov guilty under part 1, article 282 of Russia’s Criminal Code ("The Incitement of Hatred or Enmity as well as Humiliation of Human Dignity") and sentenced him to one year and six months in a strict security penal colony," the court’s verdict reads.

Pursuant to the court’s ruling, Kvachkov’s unserved term of one year and four months is added to the prison term announced on Friday under cumulative punishment. By partially accumulating punishments, Kvachkov will have to stay for two years in a penal colony, the verdict reads.

Kvachkov case

Criminal proceedings were launched after Kvachkov’s video appeal was posted on YouTube in March 2015 to mark ten years after an attempt on the life of Rusnano chief Anatoly Chubais, who at the time was head of national power monopoly Unified Energy System. Within a year, investigators were probing into the video, seeing evidence of extremism in it.

In March 2016, Kvachkov was officially named as defendant. The case was initially opened under article 205.2 of Russia’s Criminal Code "Public Calls for Conducting Terrorist Activity or Public Justification of Terrorism." During the court proceedings, the state prosecutors requested the court to re-qualify the case and charge the defendant under article 282 of Russia’s Criminal Code and demanded three years in prison for Kvachkov. The former intelligence colonel denied his guilt.

During the judicial proceedings, Kvachkov’s lawyers appealed to the court with a request to terminate the criminal prosecution of their defendant on the grounds of the absence of the elements of crime in his acts. As lawyer Sergei Orlov noted, the video, according to the investigation’s data, was posted in the Internet by unidentified persons. According to the lawyer, Kvachkov, who was serving another sentence at that time in a penal colony, had no possibility to post this video in the Internet.