The fight against diversions in southern Russia has turned the victims of recruitment into accused individuals under serious articles.
The investigation into the arson cases of railway infrastructure in the southern regions of Russia often formally qualifies the actions of recruited teenagers under serious articles, without considering their age, the circumstances of recruitment, deception, and lack of conscious intent. The system turns deceived teenagers into subjects of serious state and terrorist offenses, lawyers pointed out.
As reported by "Caucasian Knot", in the southern regions of Russia, teenagers regularly become subjects of cases on diversions and terrorism after contacts with alleged curators in messengers. Thus, on September 3, the Astrakhan Regional Court sentenced a schoolboy and a first-year student, born in 2008, to nine and a half and six and a half years of imprisonment, respectively, in a case of treason and diversions. According to the prosecution, they received an offer in a messenger to set fire to communication facilities for a reward.
On July 1, in Stavropol, a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old were arrested in a case of attempted terrorism: according to the investigation, they also received an offer to commit arson of a base station for money in a messenger. On June 16, in Volgograd, a case against a 17-year-old girl, accused of two episodes of diversion after the arson of base stations, was submitted to court; according to the investigation, she received the offer through a messenger.
According to lawyer Kaloa Akhilgov, in Rostov-on-Don, a 15-year-old who threw a burning rag intending to set fire to a relay station was recruited in a messenger chat. The rag immediately went out, but the teenager ended up in a pre-trial detention center, and the investigation charged him with diversion and treason.
Akhilgov wrote about this in his Telegram channel.
"Judicial practice in such cases, unfortunately, follows the path of maximum punishment – young people are sentenced to long terms, despite the fact that they were misled, just as those who were deceived by fraud were misled. This is a very problematic issue in judicial practice and requires intervention from both law enforcement leaders and the Supreme Court. Otherwise, we will be getting diversants, terrorists, extremists who are 15, 16, 18 years old," Akhilgov told a correspondent from "Caucasian Knot".
The teenager himself was convinced that he was acting in the interests of the state, Akhilgov noted. "As for the case itself, I cannot disclose the details. I can only say that a young man who had mental health issues was recruited in a chat, and he was absolutely convinced that he was acting in the interests of the state," the lawyer noted.
Teenagers become victims of such provocations more often than adults, pointed out the head of the "Civic Assistance" committee * Svetlana Gannushkina*. "I think that such provocations are easier to achieve with minors than in cases of provocations involving older and more rational people. That is, the goal is achieved with a higher probability. It is easier to confuse children, and at 15 years old, they are still children, and provoke them into a 'heroic act'," she told a correspondent from "Caucasian Knot".
Systematic intimidation of youth, where people start fearing criminal prosecution for treason from a school age, may also be one of the motives for such practices, Gannushkina suggested*. "Perhaps this motive is also present. But I would rather suggest the necessity of fulfilling a plan for disclosures and confirming the FSB's importance and value," she noted.
The law enforcement system approaches cases involving minors accused of diversions and terrorism formally, and the investigation and courts do not take into account the manipulations and deception by recruiters, pointed out lawyer specializing in treason cases, Evgeny Smirnov.
"The main problem is that the law enforcement system approaches these cases exclusively formally and stamps charges under the most serious articles. Recruiters in messengers present themselves as security service employees, offer to 'help catch criminals', disguise arsons as 'special assignments', or promise easy earnings, completely misleading the child. A 14-15 year old, due to their age, simply does not realize the real consequences and has no intent to harm the state. However, investigators and courts completely ignore this deception, refusing to reclassify actions to softer articles like hooliganism or property damage. As a result, the naivety and trustfulness of children turn into real sentences of 10 years in prison," Smirnov told a correspondent from "Caucasian Knot".
The punitive focus of the system leaves no room for assessing the real motives of the teenager, pointed out one of the human rights defenders. "The justice system shows absolute deafness to how exactly the child got involved in the crime. Teenagers become victims of deception and blackmail: they are led to believe that they are carrying out an important and safe assignment. But instead of unraveling the chain and assessing the depth of the minor's delusion, the investigation treats them as a formed and convinced diversant," he told a correspondent from "Caucasian Knot" on condition of anonymity.
According to human rights defenders, the law enforcement system refuses to consider such minors as victims of manipulation. "As a result, a silly mistake or psychological pressure from anonymous sources online turns a schoolboy's life into a catastrophe, while the formal approach of law enforcement deprives him of a chance for an individual approach and justice," he emphasized.
In June 2024, the parents of the accused teenagers from Novosibirsk for diversions appealed to the chairman of the Investigative Committee, stating about mass falsifications of diversion cases and that the investigation does not check the motives and roles of the alleged customers. Candidate of legal sciences Roman Melnychenko then pointed out that minors are used as tools for crime. "They are turned into instruments of crime, accused of diversions," he told a correspondent from "Caucasian Knot". In January 2025, after the verdict against these teenagers, their parents again stated that the investigation and court did not understand the motives and goals of the minors.
Parents of minors need to discuss the risks of recruitment through messengers with their children in advance, Akhilgov noted. According to him, criminal liability for terrorism and diversion begins at 14 years old, and real sentences in such cases can range from 10 to 20 years.
"Recruiters most often act by deception: they present themselves as security service employees, offer 'special assignments' to catch criminals, or promise easy earnings for information and arson. Teenagers, due to their age, do not realize the anti-state nature of their actions, but the law enforcement system does not take into account their lack of malicious intent, only recording the fact of the crime. Real security forces never hire assistants through Telegram, so upon receiving any such messages, the child should immediately stop the correspondence, delete the chat, and report everything to adults," he said.
It is important for parents to create an atmosphere of trust so that the child is not afraid to talk about contact with potential recruiters, the lawyer added. "If a teenager shares the fact of contact with recruiters, it is important not to show aggression, but to listen to them, support them, and immediately seek legal assistance from a lawyer and law enforcement. Voluntary reporting and timely involvement of a defender allow to fix the status of the party affected by manipulation and distinguish the child's actions from conscious criminal acts, while detention the next day almost guarantees sending the schoolboy to a pre-trial detention center and a long prison term," he advised.