The Krasnoselsky District Court of St. Petersburg has remanded Nurdi Shamaev, a lawyer and native of Chechnya, in custody pending trial on charges of publicly justifying terrorism. He will remain in a pre-trial detention center until November 4.
According to investigators, on May 1, 2022, Shamaev posted the comment "Honor of the nation!" on a social media post featuring individuals whom authorities believe are involved in terrorist activities. The case was opened under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code.
Shamaev was detained on September 22, 2026. In court, he denied the charges and requested a more lenient pre-trial restriction—such as house arrest, a ban on certain actions, or bail—but the court rejected the motion.
At the time he posted the comment, Shamaev held the status of an attorney with the St. Petersburg Bar Association. His status, originally granted on June 25, 1998, is currently suspended.
The court press service did not specify which social media platform hosted the post or identify the people in the image on which Shamaev commented. Investigators maintain that Shamaev understood the nature of his actions and intended to publicly justify terrorism when he posted the comment. The accused denies the charges.
Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation—"Public calls for terrorist activity, public justification of terrorism, or the propaganda of terrorism"—was introduced into the Code in 2006. Penalties under the article were significantly toughened in 2010: the maximum term of imprisonment was raised to five years for offenses under Part 1 and to seven years for those under Part 2. In 2016, as part of the so-called "Yarovaya package," Part 2 was amended to include liability for committing the acts covered by the article using electronic and information-telecommunication networks, including the Internet. The concept of "propaganda of terrorism" was added to the article in late 2017. Under the current version of the law, Part 2 of Article 205.2 carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison.
Following the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the article has been widely applied in cases involving public statements, including anti-war remarks; according to OVD-Info, Article 205.2 became the most frequently used charge in criminal cases stemming from anti-war statements in 2024, and it remained the most common charge in cases involving the prosecution of speech in 2025. The statute of limitations for offenses under Part 2 of Article 205.2 is ten years.
