Dmitri Seleznev

According to investigators, for many years he had maintained contact with representatives of Ukrainian right-wing radical and nationalist communities. It is alleged that he had long held a firm anti-Russian stance and, since 2014, had condemned the “reunification” of Crimea with Russia, the conduct of the so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine, and the partial mobilisation announced in the Russian Federation. Since February 2022, investigators claim, he had become even more active, publishing overtly anti-Russian materials on his social media page and leaving comments of an anti-Russian nature both on his own page and on the pages of other users. Investigators further allege that no later than 1 October 2022 he established contact on the social network Odnoklassniki with Ukrainian nationals identified as S. and O., who, according to the investigation, were used by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in efforts to recruit Russian citizens to organise diversionary and terrorist acts on the territory of the Russian Federation. He allegedly continued communicating with them thereafter via the Telegram messenger. On 5 October 2022, mistakenly believing that the field kitchen was intended for mobilised servicemen, he allegedly added the insecticidal substance “Forsythe Gel”, said to contain toxic and dangerous chemical compounds, to the water in one of the compartments of the field kitchen. Investigators claim that, acting with the aim of assisting a foreign state in activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation, and intending to disrupt the functioning of state and local authorities, to instil fear for people’s lives and health and the safety of their loved ones, to inflict losses on personnel of the Russian Armed Forces, to undermine the preparation of individual servicemen and units as a whole for the performance of combat tasks, and thereby to weaken the level of protection of society and the state against external military threats, he created a real risk of harm to health of varying severity, as well as the death of two or more persons, with the aim of destabilising the activities of state authorities and influencing their decision-making regarding the termination of the “special military operation” in Ukraine. He filmed his actions using his mobile phone. According to the investigation, the video shows a field kitchen with metal cooking tanks beside it; during the recording, which lasts several minutes, he periodically turns the camera on himself and on the kitchen. In the video, he states that he had been instructed to prepare the field kitchen to cook food for citizens mobilised into the Russian Armed Forces who were to take part in exercises, but that the management which had assigned him this task had “miscalculated”, as he intended to carry out an action “in support of Ukraine, to stop the war” by poisoning the water in the field kitchen. He then films himself adding what he describes as “poisonous pesticides” from a green syringe labelled “Forsythe Gel” into the opening of the field kitchen’s water tank, expressing the hope that at least “70 occupiers will end up in hospital”. The recording ends with the phrase: “Everything will be Ukraine!” Investigators allege that he then threw the syringe into the yard and, on the same day, sent the video via Telegram to two acquaintances with the usernames “Sofia” and “Oksana Alexandrovna Vinnichenko”, who, according to the investigation, were located in Ukraine. He additionally explained in a message accompanying the video that he had poisoned the water in the field kitchen in order to help Ukraine and was expecting at least serious poisoning of mobilised servicemen. He also stated that he was not concerned about the possibility of later being “identified”, as food preparation for the mobilised had been entrusted to a private enterprise where he worked, and that, in his words, “everything has been plundered in the Russian state, there is no money for proper provision of the army, and none of the generals will publicise such an incident, otherwise their epaulettes would be torn off”.