Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code

Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code is the terrorism provision cited among the charges against Eduard Limonov. In the book, its significance lies less in a description of the law itself than in the gulf between the severity of the accusation and the small, makeshift expedition that the prosecution portrayed as a threat to national security.

Place in the Indictment

When Limonov was transferred from Lefortovo Prison to Saratov for trial, he had to learn the articles under which he was imprisoned. The sequence became a fixed recitation: “Savenko, Eduard Venyaminovich, Articles 205, 208, 222 paragraph 3, 280!” Article 205 headed a list that also included organizing or participating in an illegal armed group, firearms offenses, and incitement to extremist activities.

The book gives Article 205 the short gloss “terrorism.” It does not reproduce the provision’s text, define its legal elements, or separate its possible penalties from those attached to the other charges. Its account therefore presents the article through its role in the indictment and the public story built around it, rather than as a full exposition of Russian criminal law.

The Charge and the Alleged Plot

At the first hearing, the investigating judge cited the charges and the severe sentences they carried. Limonov felt both pride at being accused of something so grave and an urgent need to clear himself. The case concerned him and six companions at a log cabin in the Altai, about sixty miles from the Kazakh border. They had only a couple of hunting rifles; Limonov’s account of their limited means stood in sharp contrast to the allegation that they posed a serious danger to Kazakhstan.

That contrast shaped his predicament. He could regard the accusation as proof that the authorities took him seriously, yet contesting it required him to present himself as a bungling fool rather than as the leader of a consequential enterprise. The book describes the prosecution’s case as asserting a threat to national security; it does not establish that the group carried out a terrorist attack.

Official Presentation and Narrative Consequences

The Federal Security Service’s version reached beyond the courtroom. As Limonov arrived in Saratov, Channel One Russia aired a film presenting the National Bolshevik Party as a branch of Al-Qaeda and the Altai hut as a secret camp for training hundreds of fanatic fighters. The scale of this depiction far exceeded the small group and sparse armament described in the account. The film turned the terrorism charge into a vivid public image, while the book marks the imagined camp as Limonov’s dream rather than the reality of the expedition.

The prison audience had seen the film, and fellow inmates began calling Limonov “bin Laden.” The nickname flattered him but also underscored the danger of the accusation: Article 205 was not merely one number in his recited list, but the point at which a modest, disputed undertaking could be recast as an international-security menace. His account of the charge remains caught between that imposing official image and the evidence of a few men in a remote cabin.