Igor Odintsov, who was returned to Russia by Lithuanian border authorities, was found guilty by the Baltic Fleet Military Court of making public calls for terrorism. On September 30, the court sentenced Odintsov to six years in prison.
Odintsov will serve his sentence in a high-security penal colony. The court concluded that messages on a messaging app portrayed terrorist ideology and practices as correct and worthy of support and imitation.
Investigators said Odintsov held radical views, opposed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and displayed a negative attitude toward Russian authorities. Odintsov had sought asylum in Lithuania, saying he was facing prosecution in Russia because of what he had written online.
Returned the same day after crossing the Neman River
On September 17, the day he was due to attend a hearing in his trial in Russia, 68-year-old Odintsov swam across the Neman River from the Kaliningrad region and reached Lithuania. Lithuanian authorities detained him at approximately 1:50 p.m. local time; Odintsov was returned to Russia through the Panemunė border crossing at 7:00 p.m. the same day.
The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service said it had no information about threats against Odintsov, any special status he held or provisions concerning his admission to the European Union. The service decided to return him after determining that Odintsov did not qualify as a vulnerable person.
Lithuanian border authorities later said there were doubts about whether Odintsov’s statement could be treated as a request for protection. The authorities argued that the statement had not been made clearly and understandably.
Sigitas Šamborskis, head of the Lithuanian community in Kaliningrad, said he knew Odintsov and described the decision to return him as “treason.”
