Alexander Kolchenko

Aleksandr Kolchenko is an anti-fascist activist. On 17 May 2014, he was arrested on suspicion of terrorism. The investigation names him as a participant in the arson attack on the United Russia office in Simferopol, which was considered a terrorist act. Together with him, Oleg Sentsov, a film director and activist of the "Automaidan", whom the investigation believes to be the organiser of the terrorist attacks, is on trial. Two other defendants in the case, Aleksey Chirniy and Gennady Afanasiev, pleaded guilty, entered into an agreement with the investigation and were sentenced to seven years' imprisonment in a high-security penal colony; Afanasiev said at the trial that he had denounced Kolchenko under pressure during the investigation. On 25 August 2015, Kolchenko was sentenced to ten years in a strict regime colony. On 7 September 2019, he was pardoned and released as part of the exchange of Ukrainian political prisoners for groups of people released by Ukraine, arrived in Ukraine.