A resident of Yakutia was sentenced for a comment calling for the execution of priests
The Namsky District Court of Yakutia sentenced Maxim Skribkin, a 24-year-old resident of the Girsy Ulus, to two years of probation. Criminal charges were brought against him under the article regarding public calls for extremist activities on the internet.
This was reported by the court’s press service, and the independent Russian publication “Mediazona” drew attention to the verdict itself.
According to the prosecution’s case, on July 12, 2025, the man left an emotional comment under a video about the church figure Andrei Tkachev. In his post, he called for them all to be shot, as was done during the 1917 revolution. Researchers suggest that this refers to the documentary “Russia’s Most Aggressive Priest: Andrei Tkachev,” published on journalist Pavel Kanigin’s YouTube channel “To Be Continued.” In this piece, the authors analyzed the reasons why the clergyman deliberately cultivates an image of a radical hater around himself.
Archpriest Andrei Tkachev himself is known for his notorious reputation. He is the rector of the Moscow Church of the Holy Trinity in Khokhly and a TV host for the propaganda channel “Tsargrad.” His public sermons have repeatedly faced harsh criticism for their rudeness, cynicism, and open aggression, prompting representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church to even have to officially apologize for his remarks. In addition, there have been documented cases where Tkachev wrote denunciations against his own parishioners. In January 2026, Maxim Skribkin was added to Rosfinmonitoring’s official registry of “terrorists and extremists” due to this comment, and his final court verdict was handed down in April.
In Rostov-on-Don, a local court found Sergei Korovainy guilty of so-called “discrediting” the Russian Federation’s army due to a reaction in a building chat on the Max messenger app.
The Southern District Military Court of the Russian Federation in Rostov-on-Don sentenced two Ukrainian prisoners of war from the Azov Regiment to 18 years each in a maximum-security prison.
