A Stavropol resident received a 20-year prison sentence for plotting a terrorist attack at a customs checkpoint.

A court sentenced Stavropol Krai resident Alexander Zhigun to a lengthy prison term in a maximum security penal colony for plotting a terrorist attack on a local customs building.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," security forces have charged a man detained in connection with a case of sabotage on a railway in Krasnodar Krai with terrorism.

The Southern District Military Court sentenced Stavropol Krai resident Alexander Zhigun to 20 years in a maximum security penal colony for plotting a terrorist attack on a local customs building. The convicted man will serve the first four years in prison.

"From February 13 to March 28, 2024, Zhigun studied potential terrorist attack sites in the Stavropol Territory. He then coordinated with his supervisor the location for the planned terrorist attack—the explosion and arson of the customs building," TASS quotes a court source as saying.

"To commit the terrorist attack, the accused acquired components for making incendiary and explosive devices, which he stored in a rented garage," Interfax reported, citing the court's press service. It is also noted that before preparing for the terrorist attack, Zhigun joined the ranks of a Ukrainian terrorist paramilitary group banned in Russia, the name of which is not specified.

As a reminder, investigators in Rostov-on-Don charged an 18-year-old man and two 16-year-olds with arson on the railway. Similar criminal cases often feature similar wording: allegedly "unidentified persons" force teenagers or young adults to film arson and then send them to the "customer." This plotline in a large number of criminal cases suggests that investigators have found a simple way to prove the crimes, as Roman Melnichenko, a candidate of legal sciences, previously noted.