03:44, 3 October 2025

Two Rostov residents have been convicted in connection with a terrorist attack on a railway.

A military court in Rostov-on-Don found Pavel Yevlashkin and Denis Maksimov guilty of terrorism and money laundering; both were sentenced to 15 years in prison.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," in the southern regions of Russia, since the start of the military operation in Ukraine, there have been repeated arson attacks on railway equipment. Investigators are classifying these incidents as acts of sabotage and terrorism. At the end of May, in Taganrog, a 19-year-old resident of the Neklinovsky district was detained for planning to set fire to a relay cabinet, and in June, security forces detained a resident of the village of Belozerny for setting fire to an electrical cabinet on the railway.

Criminal cases often feature similar wording: allegedly "unidentified individuals" force teenagers or young adults to film arson and then send the videos to the "customer." This narrative in a large number of criminal cases suggests that investigators have found a simple way to prove crimes, as Roman Melnichenko, a candidate of legal sciences, previously noted.

The Southern District Military Court sentenced Rostov Region residents Pavel Yevlashkin and Denis Maksimov, finding them guilty of a terrorist attack and money laundering.

According to the prosecution, Yevlashkin received an order from a client via Telegram to set fire to equipment on the Rostov-Glavny - Gnilovskaya railway line for a monetary reward. Investigators believe Yevlashkin recruited his friend, Maksimov, to carry out the assignment. In February 2024, they set fire to equipment that ensures train safety, the Southern Transport Prosecutor's Office reported on September 2.

They received the client's payment in cryptocurrency and transferred it into legal circulation through Maksimov's bank account. The sum in question was over 20,000 rubles, according to a statement on the agency's website. The case against the client, according to the prosecutor's office, "has been separated into separate proceedings."

Both defendants were sentenced to 15 years in a maximum-security penal colony, with the first three years to be served in prison and a year of restricted freedom after release.

The details of both convicted individuals were added to the Rosfinmonitoring register of terrorists and extremists on August 16, 2024, according to data from a bot tracking list updates. Both are natives of Rostov-on-Don. Yevlashkin turned 22 in June, and Maksimov will turn 21 on October 17, according to the list.

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Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/415966