MOSCOW, September 1. /TASS/. Russia’s Second Western District Military Court has sentenced Russian national Ramazan Murtuzov to 15 years’ imprisonment after his conviction for plotting to set off an explosion at a shopping center or railway station in Kursk.

The court’s press service clarified to TASS that the perpetrator was codenamed "Pilgrim" when recruited by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and, following his apprehension, had admitted his guilt.

"By partial addition, the court designated a punishment of incarceration for 15 years, out of which the first three years he will spend in a house of detention with the remainder of the sentence to be served in a maximum-security prison. As an additional punishment, he received a fine of 1 mln rubles (over $10,000 - TASS) and restrictions on his freedom of movement for one-and-a-half years. The verdict has not yet been appealed," a court source said.

According to the court, following the start of the special military operation, Murtuzov went to Ukraine to take part in combat against the Russian Armed Forces. He was detained near Kharkov and recruited by the SBU. He signed a document to cooperate with Ukrainian intelligence and picked the codename "Pilgrim." After being trained in mines and explosives, he took on a mission from the SBU to "bring a home-made explosive device to Russia, plant it and detonate it."

As the court established, in preparing to conduct a terror attack, the man smuggled in four high-capacity explosive devices: over 2 kilos of a UK-made plastic explosive substance disguised as baby formula, shampoos, juice and coffee, as well as Czech-made electronic detonators. When approaching Kursk, where he had identified several high-pedestrian traffic locations as potential targets, he was caught red-handed. The perpetrator fully admitted his guilt but refused to testify in court, so his confession given during the preliminary investigation was read out during the trial.