Канск

On August 17 defendant in the case of the Kansk teenagers Nikita Uvarov celebrates his birthday. He is turning exactly 20 years old.

Nikita is a young anarchist from Kansk. Before his arrest, he was a school student, studied the works of Peter Kropotkin, listened to songs by Yegor Letov, learned to play guitar, and dreamed of entering the journalism faculty. Already at the age of 14, Nikita was interested in politics and actively spoke out against political repression.

On Thursday, February 10, a Russian court handed down sentences for terrorism to three teenagers from the Siberian town of Kansk. The boys were arrested in the summer of 2020 for posting leaflets with political slogans on the local FSB building. After searching their phones and uncovering a “plot” to blow up a virtual rendering of an FSB building in the video game Minecraft, investigators charged the teens with making explosives and training to participate in terrorist activities.

The sentence in the case of the Kansk teenagers will be given on Thursday, the 10th of February 2022 at 3PM in Krasnoyarsk time (11 AM Moscow time, 8 AM GMT). Three anarchists from the Krasnoyarsk region are accused of “studying terrorism” and storing explosives. Nikita Uvarov, Denis Mikhayuulenko and Bogdan Andreev were arrested in the summer of 2020 for spreading leaflets that criticised the state, and for supporting political prisoners. At that time they were 14 years old.  

This time around there's both good news and bad news, so lets start with the good ones.

Maxim ”Hadad” Smolnikov released from remand in custody