Leonid Khabarov

Who is Leonid Khabarov?

Leonid Khabarov is a former Soviet military officer whose battalion was the first Soviet Army unit to cross the border into the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan on December 25, 1979, serving as the de facto beginning of the decade-long Soviet war in Afghanistan. He received broad media attention after he was arrested on coup d'état charges while serving as a Russian ROTC chief in 2011. He was accused of having created a master plot to overthrow local authorities in the Ural region of Russia for the purpose of launching a nationwide rebellion.

The indictment accused Khabarov of attempting to illegally purchase weapons "in an undetermined place, in undetermined circumstances, acting in conjunction with undetermined individuals." Trial sessions were routinely rescheduled, but on 26 February 2013 Sverdlovsk Regional Court sentenced Khabarov to four-and-a-half years in prison, despite nation-wide protest. Khabarov appealed to the Supreme Court of Russia, but his case was rejected.