A St. Petersburg court has sentenced a former school security guard named Alexander Glushkin to five years in prison on charges of spreading “disinformation” about the Russian army.

The St. Petersburg courts’ press service said Glushkin pleaded partially guilty.

According to investigators, in April 2022, Glushkin reposted “false” information about the Russian military’s actions on his VKontakte page. The outlet MR7 reported that the case stemmed from a post about the actions of Russian troops in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.

Glushkin was arrested in February 2024. He was initially restricted from certain activities, but in August of that year he was sent to a pre-trial detention center.

In court, Glushkin said he clicked “share” on the post not so that more people would see it but to save it so he could analyze it himself later.

The prosecution’s witness in the case was the head of the school’s extracurricular education department, who said the post showed her that Glushkin “held a different political position from that of the Russian Armed Forces and wanted to destabilize the situation in the country.”

At one of the hearings, Glushkin reportedly urged his compatriots to “be extremely careful about sources of information” and to “evaluate any data critically, especially when it concerns the army in such a difficult time for the country.” He continued:

Never post unverified information in the public sphere. One must remember that even the unwitting spread of false information can have irreparable consequences. Once again, I apologize for the harm caused. I have learned this lesson forever and promise it will never happen again.

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