A young Russian man previously jailed in the republic of Chechnya for burning the Quran was sentenced to an additional 13 years and six months in prison on charges of treason, Russian media reported Monday, citing court documents.
Nikita Zhuravel, 20, was accused last month of sharing videos of Russian military equipment and aircraft with Ukraine’s SBU security service in March 2023.
In February, a Chechen court sentenced Zhuravel to three and a half years in prison for offending religious believers by burning the Quran in the Volgograd region of southern Russia.
Zhuravel accused Adam Kadyrov, the 15-year-old son of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, of beating him in pre-trial detention in August 2023. Kadyrov later shared a video of the assault, which law enforcement declined to investigate.
Following the widely publicized incident, several regional authorities awarded the younger Kadyrov state honors.
