A postgraduate student in St. Petersburg who was jailed for vandalizing a military enlistment office in protest of the war in Ukraine has been released from prison, independent media reported Wednesday.
Vladimir Mironov, 27, was arrested in February 2023 after he smashed windows and spray-painted anti-war slogans on the walls of an army recruitment center.
He was sentenced to four years in prison in July 2024 on charges of disrupting the peace and “discrediting” the Russian military.
In February, an appeals court reduced Mironov’s sentence to three years and four months. The time he spent in pre-trial detention counted toward his sentence.
Although the prison full term has not yet passed in calendar days, under Russian law, time spent in pretrial detention is counted as 1.5 days per actual day served, meaning Mironov had effectively completed his sentence at the time of release on Wednesday.
Mironov, a student at the St. Petersburg Academic University, admitted partial guilt and paid damages. The slogans he reportedly painted included “No to war,” “Stop the killing” and “How much longer can you kill?”
The Memorial human rights group had recognized Mironov as a political prisoner.
The Telegram news channel RusNews shared video of his release from a St. Petersburg penal colony, in which Mironov said his time in prison “went well” because he was “surrounded by good people.”
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