17-year-old Balazeikin from St. Petersburg was sentenced to 6 years for setting fire to military registration and enlistment offices.

In St. Petersburg, a court sentenced 17-year-old gymnasium student Yegor Balazeikin to six years in prison, who was found guilty of two attempts to set fire to military registration and enlistment offices in the region. The prosecutor requested such a punishment for the teenager; the case was considered by a panel of three judges who specially arrived from Moscow, notes “Fontanka”.

The court found the investigation’s version proven, according to which at the beginning of February 2023 Balazeikin tried to throw a Molotov cocktail at the military registration and enlistment office building located next to the Novocherkasskaya metro station, and at the end of February he came to Kirovsk, Leningrad region, and threw a Molotov cocktail at the building of the local military registration and enlistment office – there was no fire. Initially, the investigation classified these actions as attempts to damage property or hooliganism, then reclassified them under the article “terrorism.”

In court, the prosecutor read out the testimony Balazeikin had previously given. According to the teenager’s statements, at first after February 24, 2022, he was generally indifferent to the topic of SVO, but after studying materials in the media, he changed his attitude. He also said that he tried to convince his acquaintances of a different position, but after some time he became disillusioned with these attempts. In his last word in court, Balazeikin said that he partially admitted guilt, but did not consider his actions an attempted terrorist attack. According to the high school student, he wanted to express his protest against the Russian Northern Military District in Ukraine. Balazeikin also told the court that his uncle was, in his words, a worthy officer, but “there was only a place for him in the assault detachment” and “in Russia there was no more worthy place for him.” Fontanka notes that the teenager’s uncle died in the Donetsk village of Mazanovka.