A Russian court has sentenced eleven members of the “Soviet citizens” movement to imprisonment for extremism, after a trial that lasted almost two years.

The group subscribes to the notion that the Soviet Union never actually ceased to exist and that the Russian Federation is therefore illegitimate.

In 2019, a court in the Komi Republic declared the “USSR” an extremist organization, effectively banning its activities. The eleven defendants from Sverdlovsk Region, however, continued to hold meetings and lectures, distribute pamphlets and avoid taxes and utility bills, according to authorities.

Members of the Ekaterinburg branch of “USSR” were found guilty of “participating in a public association banned due to extremist activity,” under Article 282.2, Section 2 of the Russian criminal code, local media reported on Wednesday.

The two ringleaders were sentenced to six years in a general regime penal colony, while each of their nine followers was sentenced to two years.

According to prosecutors, “USSR” was started in 2010 by Sergey Taraskin, owner of a dental clinic in Zelenograd, Moscow Region. Taraskin was born in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, the former Soviet republic now an independent Central Asian state.

The Soviet Union was proclaimed in 1922, on the ruins of the Russian Empire. It was dissolved in December 1991, after the leaders of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine agreed to dissolve it in defiance of a popular referendum favoring its continuation. The Russian Federation was then recognized as the legal successor of the USSR, with all other republics turned independent states seeking recognition from scratch.

Prosecutors have alleged that members of the “USSR” – which to some stood for “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics” but to others for “Union of Slavic Forces of Rus” – refused to recognize the existence of Russia and styled themselves citizens of the now-extinct Soviet Union.

This manifested in refusal to obey Russian laws, failing to pay utility bills or bank loans, or contempt for government officials – including Judge Yulia Lobanova, who presided over the trial. Several of the defendants argued that the court lacked legitimacy, as they only recognized Soviet judges.

A similar movement, called “sovereign citizens,” emerged in the US in the 1970s and has since spread to Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Its adherents have invoked English Common Law to argue that they did not consent to being ruled by any government.