Russia has jailed a man for claiming to be the Soviet president. The court has found Sergey Taraskin guilty of establishing a public association [deemed extremist] and sentenced him to eight years in a penal colony.
A Moscow court sentenced a self-proclaimed acting president of the Soviet Union to eight years in a prison colony on Wednesday for forming an extremist group. The convicted criminal, a former dentist, has advocated for breaking Russian laws and re-establishing the Soviet KGB.
The disintegration of the USSR, according to the self-proclaimed president, was illegitimate, and the country still exists de jure. As a result, he believes, the Russian Federation’s constitution has no authority and therefore Russian legislation should be disregarded. To establish his power, the former dentist posted a proclamation on social media demanding the Soviet KGB to be restored.
“The court has found Sergey Taraskin guilty of establishing a public association [deemed extremist] and sentenced him to eight years in a penal colony,” the press department of Moscow’s Zelenogradskiy district court told TASS. Taraskin has been under home confinement since 2020, thus his sentencing will be reduced by two years.
Taraskin, who is also referred to as the “Master of the Universe” and the “Fire God,” founded the Union of Slavic Forces of Russia, better known as the USSR, in 2010. It all began when Taraskin’s company declared bankruptcy and a judge ordered him to vacate his dentistry clinic’s rented space.
He then attempted to overturn the court’s judgment by claiming to be not only the interim president of the USSR, but also the Russian Empire’s emperor and commander-in-chief. He supposedly tried to initiate World War III against NATO later on. Taraskin’s USSR has over 150,000 followers, according to the FSB, the successor agency to the former KGB.