In the Russian Federation, a 14-year-old teenager was sentenced to 7 years behind bars – in the case of setting fire to the Military Commissariat

In Russia, the 2nd Western District Military Court sentenced a 14-year-old teenager from the town of Vyshnyi Volochka, Tver region, to seven years in a correctional facility on charges of attempted terrorist attack through attempted arson, reports the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.

The teenager’s name has not been released. Two charges were brought against him – participation in the activities of a terrorist organization and attempt to commit a terrorist attack.

According to the investigation, in May 2025, the teenager prepared three bottles with an incendiary mixture and tried to set the administrative building on fire, following the instructions of Ukrainian intelligence received from one of the messengers. His attempt was stopped by FSB officers.

In the video, a fragment of which was published by the Investigative Committee, a teenager, whose face is hidden, sits next to a woman (probably his mother) and says that he received an offer “in the form of delivering a bag” from Torzhek to the military commissariat in Vyshnyi Volochka. According to the teenager, his interlocutor said that there was an incendiary liquid inside the bag.

There are no other details in the press release of the Investigative Committee. The investigators substantiated the teenager’s guilt with a “combination of evidence”, including the conclusions of forensic examinations, the results of investigative activities and “other case materials”.

After the start of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war in 2022, many criminal cases involving minors appeared in Russia. They are accused of various acts of sabotage, for example, attempts to set fire to buildings or relay cabinets, which, according to the security forces, they are acting on the instructions of representatives of Ukrainian intelligence. As for teenagers who have just reached the age of criminal responsibility (it comes at the age of 14), cases of terrorist attacks are initiated and they are included in the list of terrorists and extremists maintained by Rosfinmonitoring. Many of them get real terms. In 2024, “Nova gazeta Europa” calculated that more than 90 minor Russians were on the list of Rosfinmonitoring.