Three teenagers have been arrested in Kuban after setting fire to a relay cabinet.
In the Krasnodar region, three underage young men have been detained on charges of terrorism. The investigation claims that they set fire to railway equipment.
"Caucasian Knot" reported that in the southern regions of Russia, after the start of large-scale military actions in Ukraine, there have been repeated arsons of military enlistment offices and relay cabinets on the railway. A wave of such arsons, in particular, was recorded after the announcement of partial mobilization in Russia. On September 30, 2022, a representative of the General Staff, Vladimir Tsymlyansky, stated that arsons of military enlistment offices would be classified as acts of terrorism, and investigators sometimes apply the article on sabotage to such cases.
The three accused are 15, 16, and 17 years old. The article on terrorism attributed to the teenagers (paragraph "a" of part 2 of article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) provides for imprisonment from twelve to twenty years.
The arson of the relay cabinet on the stretch between the stations of Hot Key and Valley of Charm was committed on the night of September 24. According to the investigation's version, the suggestion to set fire to railway equipment for monetary reward was made to one of the defendants via Telegram, after which the young man involved two of his acquaintances, also minors, to carry out the "task".
The teenagers bought a bottle of flammable liquid and set fire to the contents of the relay cabinet. "Having recorded everything happening on a mobile phone camera, they sent a video report to their curator and fled the scene," the official Telegram channel of the Investigative Committee stated.
In criminal cases about arsons, a typical formulation often appears: allegedly "unidentified persons" force people to film the arsons and then send them to the "customer". Such a plot in a large number of criminal cases indicates that investigators have found a simple way to prove crimes, noted legal scholar Roman Melnychenko earlier.
All three defendants were later detained by officers of the regional FSB and police. "They have been chosen a preventive measure in the form of detention and charged with committing a crime," the statement notes.
The investigation justifies the charges by stating that the actions of the accused "created a danger of failure of equipment intended for the safe movement of trains and the passage of pedestrians." Investigative actions are ongoing in the case, the agency added.
The investigation's versions regarding the motives for the arson of relay cabinets on the railway in the Krasnodar region appear unconvincing, and such cases often have signs of fabrication, human rights defenders noted earlier. The relay cabinet is an important part of the infrastructure, so the motive of sabotage cannot be ruled out, argued a former police officer.
"Caucasian Knot" also reported that in April, for the arson of relay cabinets in the Rostov region, a native of the Salsky district, Daniil Panov, was sentenced to 13 years in a strict regime. At the end of April, a military court in Rostov-on-Don imposed long sentences on Vladislav Matukhnenko, Anton Esaulenko, and Evgenia Kudryashova in the case of arsons on the railway.
In July, the prosecutor's office of the Krasnodar region transferred to the court the case of a 20-year-old resident of Hot Key, accused of preparing a terrorist act and treason. The investigation claims that the young man planned to set fire to a police car at the behest of Ukrainian special services.