The Barnaul garrison court sentenced reserve Major Mikhail Zhilin to six and a half years in prison, deprived of military rank in a strict regime colony. In September 2022, the man, fearing to be sent to the military operation zone, tried to leave Russia and bypassed the checkpoint, crossing the border with Kazakhstan.
“The court found Zhilin guilty of committing a crime under Part 3 of Art. 338 (“The Escape”) and Part 1 of Art. 322 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Illegal border crossing”)”, — reported 2. In the press service of the Eastern District Military Court.
The decision has not yet entered into force.
According to the investigation, fearing that he would be sent to the military operation zone, the man sold the property in September 2022 and falsely informed the command that he was disabled. After that, he crossed the Russian state border, crossing the checkpoint on foot, but was detained by Kazakh border guards. He was released on bail. Kommersant writes that Zhilin’s wife and her children went in the other direction and entered the country through an official checkpoint on September 26.
By applying for asylum in Kazakhstan, Zhilin hoped that he could stay in the country at least until the end of the application process. Kazakhstan, however, refused to grant political asylum to the civil servant. Semey was also given a suspended sentence for illegal entry, and the court ordered her deportation to Russia.
The man tried to fly to Armenia on December 6, but was detained at the Astana airport because Russia placed him on the international wanted list. After that, the court granted him a preventive measure – 40 days’ detention – pending extradition.
Already on December 30, the officer was sent to a pre-trial detention center in the city of Rubtsovsk in the Altai Territory, and a criminal case was opened against him for articles on illegal border crossing and desertion. According to Kommersant-Sibir, the convict was a former Federal Security Service employee at the time the verdict was announced.
What do you know about the accused?
Zhilin served in the Federal Security Service for 18 years. According to Novaya Gazeta Europe, the man worked as an engineer at the FSO’s Special Communications and Information Center in Novosibirsk. There he was engaged in serving government communications.
His wife, Ekaterina Zhilina, spoke in an interview with Novaya Gazeta. “But life has stopped” in Europe, which he said he would leave as of 2014. She also noted that her husband was against the military operation in Ukraine and did not want to participate in it, she said.
According to him, Zhilin learned in September about the plans of the leadership to send him on a business trip to the regions annexed to Russia on September 30 as a result of the referendums. After that, he decided to leave. The woman notes that the time coincided with the announcement of partial mobilization in the Russian Federation, but the departure of her husband was associated with a possible business trip to new territories.
“Initially we had an understanding that it would not be released from Russia. Therefore, my children and I entered Kazakhstan through the Koyanbai border crossing, and my husband passed through the forests near the village of Yernazar, ”said Ekaterina.
According to her, her husband met a man while leaving the forest. “And he apparently informed the border guards about him. Our car was stopped, we were asked to show documents and in fact it was determined that Mikhail did not enter the country through the border checkpoint,” he added.
Journalist Evgenia Baltatarova (known as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation) said that Ekaterina Zhilina left Kazakhstan with her children in January 2023 to go to France to seek political asylum.