On Wednesday, February 19, the Center for Public Relations of the FSB of the Russian Federation announced that a criminal case has been instituted against the former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev under the articles on violent seizure of power (Article 278 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and the organization of the terrorist community (part 1 and part 2 of article 2 .
The FSB COO said that “for the implementation of the plan to seize power in the Russian Federation by force, Ponomarev organized interaction with one of the Ukrainian militarized units (included in the list of organizations recognized as terrorist).”
Another basis for initiating a criminal case was the data on the establishment of Ponomarev in Poland in November 2022 of the political movement “Congress of People’s Deputies” and the organization of his work, the FSB reported.
Russian media report that in nine regions of the Russian Federation searches of “associates of Ponomarev” are being carried out.
In September 2024, the Second Western District Military Court in absentia sentenced the former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev to ten years in a general regime colony “For the dissemination of knowingly false information about the activities of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the justification of terrorism.” By the decision of the Russian court, Ponomarev, who is in Ukraine, was found guilty of publicly disseminating false information about the activities of the Russian military based on political hatred (paragraph “d” of part 2 of article 207.3) and in the justification of terrorism (part 2 of article 205.2 of the Criminal Code ).
In Russia, Ilya Ponomarev also investigates criminal cases of treason, participation in the activities of the Legion Freedom of Russia terrorist organization and calls to activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation. Obviously, new correspondence sentences should be expected.
Ilya Ponomarev left Russia in 2014. In 2019, he received citizenship of Ukraine.
On August 1, 2024, Ponomarev was easily wounded as a result of the fall of UAV fragments at his house in the Kyiv region.