MOSCOW, March 16. /TASS/. The Russian Supreme Court on Thursday designated Ukraine’s Freedom of Russia Legion as a terrorist organization, TASS reports.

"To satisfy the administrative claim of the prosecutor general to recognize the Freedom of Russia Legion as terrorist and ban its activities on the territory of Russia," the judge read out the decision.

The session was held behind closed doors and was not open to the public.

Under the decision of the Supreme Court, individuals participating in the activities of the organization will be prosecuted for abetting terrorism. Abetting, financing of the Legion, recruitment of new participants, as well as failure to report a terrorist offense to law enforcement agencies will be subject to criminal punishment.

The punishment for committing such crimes carries a term of up to life in prison.

According to the files of the case, the Ukrainian paramilitary unit Freedom of Russia Legion was created in March 2022 on instructions from President Vladimir Zelensky as a project for recruiting volunteers from among the anti-Russian citizens of Russia to participate in hostilities on the side of the Ukrainian army.

The organizers of the unit see their ultimate goal as the decentralization of the Russian Federation and they hope to achieve this by creating an army of Russian citizens to overthrow the current government and undermine the constitutional framework, as well as by carrying out terrorist attacks on the territory of Russia.