A Lipetsk schoolboy was provoked into committing a terrorist attack: there is a secret scheme at work

In August of this year, a ninth-grader from the Moscow region was arrested in Lipetsk (he was visiting his grandmother on vacation). A 15-year-old teenager was accused of preparing for a terrorist attack: he allegedly planned to set fire to a mosque and blow up a railway track. And all this on the instructions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Surely, today the Ukrainian special services are using all methods of fighting the Russian authorities, not disdaining the recruitment of children and teenagers. But isn’t this a reason to take preventive measures? Talk in school about how this can happen and what to do if you receive an “interesting offer to make money” on social networks? The answer is obvious. But our law enforcement officers, it seems, either do not engage in such prevention, or they mean by it something completely different, which is more suitable under the concept of “provocation.” About how a teenager was thrown into a pre-trial detention center and who might actually need it, read in the material of an MK observer.

“My 15-year-old son has been in pre-trial detention for three months.” This is a quote from the boy’s mother from a letter to the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation. “Instead of going to school, he sits in a cell. He is accused of preparing for a terrorist attack.”

To begin with, I will say that the boy is from a quite prosperous, but single-parent family. My mother is a lawyer, my grandmother is a retired federal judge (formerly the chairman of a district court). The parents separated almost immediately after the birth of the child. Andrey (name changed – author’s note) lived with his mother and grandmother in Lipetsk. And then my mother moved to the Moscow region, took her son, and enrolled him in a local school. Andrei had little contact with his father. And, apparently, my mother’s attention was not enough. And then there’s adolescence. Andrey had conflicts with his class teacher and skipped classes. As a result, the mother was brought to administrative responsibility for failure to fulfill her duties in raising a minor.

“He’s an ordinary teenager,” says Andrey’s aunt, who is also his godmother (by the way, also a lawyer by profession). — I was an average student. Doesn’t smoke, does parkour and wrestling. He has a gold GTO badge, worked at a construction site in the summer, and was also a volunteer.

The woman shows the same badge and personal booklet “Volunteer”, issued by the organization “Mosvolonter”. She sends them photos of cultural trips together, apparently in case I don’t believe it. Here is Andrei in the Bulgakov Museum, and here he is in the Tretyakov Gallery. His grandmother, with whom he is very close, took him to many events. But everyone in the family has their own role, and no one can replace the father. And due to strained relations with him, Andrei did not tell about one incident in time.

— In the city where we live, he and his friends were attacked by migrants. They threatened me with a knife,” says the parent. – I found out about this only later. Perhaps that’s why in July 2023 Andrei shaved his head, subscribed to skinhead groups, and began to take an interest in their history. And when I was in Lipetsk with my grandmother on vacation, I wrote to the TG group that I wanted to get acquainted with local skins. After that, a certain Igor got in touch with him. He said that he was also a skinhead. An important point: the man asked Andrei’s age, and the son, in order to look cooler, said that he was 16 years old. I think this played a role.

A small digression. For a long time in Russia, the age of criminal responsibility for crimes of a terrorist nature began at 16 years. But in 2016, changes were made to the legislation: “In terms of establishing additional measures to counter terrorism and ensure public safety, the list of crimes for which responsibility begins at the age of 14 has been expanded.” The measure is correct. But in the years since then, how much has this responsibility been talked about in Russian schools? But it is quite logical that if the law allows schoolchildren to be prosecuted for a particularly serious crime, then preventive measures should have been taken. Not one of the ten Moscow ninth-graders I interviewed said that such conversations had taken place.

But let’s return to Andrey. The correspondence shows that he liked to communicate with “Igor”, he even asked (either jokingly or seriously) whether “Igor” could be called “father”, he wanted to please him. And then “Father Igor” explained that now you can make money from hatred of migrants (there are those who are willing to pay for actions against them). Judging by the correspondence, “Igor” offered to set fire to the mosque and receive 80 thousand rubles for it.

This is what mom says:

– You see, Andrei planned to connect his life with service in the authorities, signed up to prepare for entering the College of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, in his words, he perceived everything that was happening as a quest. He first agreed to the proposal to set fire to the mosque in order to gain the trust of “Igor”; he even went and looked where it was. Before this, neither he nor we had any idea that there was even a mosque in Lipetsk. But he did not intend to carry out what was proposed, as he said in correspondence and later in testimony. When he voluntarily abandoned arson and informed “Igor” about this, he invited him to commit sabotage on the railway together by setting fire to the relay cabinet for 180 thousand rubles. A new reason for communication appeared, and Andrei supported him again.

Judging by the correspondence, “Igor” ordered to buy gasoline and something flammable. Andrey said that he has no money. “Igor” indicated the location of the money stash.

15-year-old Andrei was detained by FSB officers of the Lipetsk region on the third day of communication with “Igor”. It happened on the street when he was approaching his grandmother’s house. According to the case file, he had a bag with ignition and motor oil. He insists that he wanted to call “Igor” to a meeting in order to hand him over to the police and thereby become a hero in the eyes of his parents. And the law enforcement officers, in order to show that they had exposed the terrorist, acted quickly and harshly.

“If a minor is detained, law enforcement agencies are obliged to immediately notify legal representatives,” says the mother. – But they hid their son. I looked for my child through all possible channels and was able to find out about the arrest (it happened at 7 pm) only at two in the morning through the Russian Rescue Service. And even after this, the employee of the regional department of OP No. 3 continued to claim that she did not know where the child was. They interrogated the son for more than 10 hours, including at night, citing the fact that “the case was urgent.”

Mom said all this at the trial when choosing a preventive measure. There was also an educational psychologist present who spoke out against placing the detainee in custody and spoke about the fact that the teenager needed to study. But the investigation insisted: he could escape and continue committing illegal actions. The prosecutor’s office also supported the arrest. As a result, the Oktyabrsky District Court of the city of Lipetsk decided to take him into custody.

“Dad came to all court hearings, but Andrei looked at him with a challenge at first,” says the aunt. – And at the last meeting he thawed. And there both Andrei and dad cried. Then there’s mom and grandma.

“Please note: communication with a stranger already on the third day led to the detention of the student,” states a former intelligence officer. “This indicates that there was most likely a provocation.”

What’s interesting is that no one really asked Andrey about “Igor.” The arrest warrant states that the accomplices have not been identified. And if the suspicions of the relatives and our experts are correct, then it is worth remembering the law “On Operational-Investigative Activities.” It states that investigative bodies are prohibited from inciting, inducing, inducing, directly or indirectly, to commit illegal actions.

Of course, the interest of the security forces in Andrei is not accidental. And the investigators most likely perceive his words about the quest and initially good intentions with a grin: they say, all criminals justify themselves this way. But even if the boy is disingenuous, how did it happen that it was so easy to put wild ideas about setting fire to the mosque and relay cabinets into his head? After all, in theory, intelligence agencies monitor (or at least should) the vast majority of chats and channels where dangerous topics are discussed, especially those related to terrorism. And since we are talking about a teenager, maybe it’s worth trying to save a lost soul, and not drag the boy straight to prison, from where he will emerge as a seasoned criminal?

Andrei is now in a pre-trial detention center, where there is not even a building for minors. Lipetsk schools and the administration of the detention center did not find a way to organize his education.

I ask the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, to take control of this case and also conduct an investigation for possible provocation and incitement.