Three Russian court and border stories before 24 May 2024
A look back at reports from 20 to 23 May 2024 that framed the news on the covered day.
What did the days leading up to 24 May 2024 show about Russia's internal pressures and its borders? Three reports from 20 to 23 May offer a partial answer.
On 20 May 2024, a court in Novosibirsk sentenced a 24-year-old man to 25 years in prison. He was accused of plotting an arson attack on a military recruitment office, allegedly on directions from Ukraine. The case was listed among a series of attacks on Russian military commissariats.
On 21 May 2024, a court in Saint Petersburg sentenced Anatoly Maslov, a 77-year-old hypersonic missiles expert, to 14 years in prison for state treason.
The third report concerned the frontier rather than the courtroom. On 23 May 2024, Russia removed the border markers signalling the border with Estonia on the Narva River. The European Union protested.
Taken together, the reports describe harsh sentences handed down within a single week and a border dispute that drew a formal reaction from the EU. The reports do not link the cases to one another, and nothing in them ties the events to a single decision or policy. They stand as separate items from the days just before 24 May 2024.
