In Stavropol Territory, teens arrested on suspicion of preparing attacks on law enforcers

Nine persons, including eight teenagers, suspected of preparing attacks on policemen, have been taken into custody in the Stavropol Territory. Some of them have told how they had sworn an oath to a terrorist organization without understanding the meaning of the words.

The youngest detainee is 14 years old

Employees of the MIA (Ministry of Internal Affairs) and the FSB (Russian Federal Security Service) "has stopped illegal activities of a group of minors," the MIA reported in its website on May 19. The detainees are suspected of joining an international terrorist organization that is banned in Russia. The name thereof was not specified in the report.

"It has been preliminarily established that a 17-year-old Stavropol resident had voluntarily joined this organization via a messenger. He then involved eight more residents of the territory in its activities, seven of whom are minors aged 14 to 17. The perpetrators planned to commit terror acts during the festive events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. However, these plans were thwarted; and the accomplices were detained," the report says.

All the defendants have been placed into custody.

The Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) has opened nine criminal cases under Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 (incitement to terrorism; it provides for a sentence of eight years to life imprisonment) and Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (participation in the activities of a terrorist organization; provides for a sentence of 10 to 20 years of freedom deprivation). "All the defendants have been placed into custody," the MIA has reported.

The same information was posted today in the website of the FSB, which specified that the detainees had planned to commit the crime on May 9 "in one of the municipalities of the Stavropol Territory." From this release it follows that the suspects' plans were thwarted by FSB officers.

All the nine detainees are residents of the Andropovsky District of the Stavropol Territory, the territorial branch of the ICRF has reported today in its website. The branch has emphasized that "the defendants’ activities" were stopped by the ICRF investigators "in cooperation with the regional branches of the MIA and FSB."

Detainees tell about circumstances of swearing oath to banned organization

He asked me to say some words, and I said them.

The post of the ICRF branch is illustrated by a video clip edited from fragments of detainees’ testimonies; their faces are retouched. "He asked me to say some words, and I said them. Then, a little later, I found out that this [was necessary] to join this group," one of the detainees says in the video.

"He came up to me and my brother and said, 'You must repeat after me.' We repeated after him, and after we repeated, he said that we had taken an oath," another teenager told law enforcers.

Another detainee – judging by his voice, he is an adult man – said that his brother had convinced him. "A year and a half ago, I found out that my brother supported [the sound is muted at this point]. He convinced me to also support [the sound is muted at this point]. I admit my guilt," he said.

He told us to repeat; we repeated, and he congratulated us on having allegedly joined some grouping.

Another detained teenager said that his classmate asked him to read the oath. "I knew the classmate who suggested reading the oath, and at the same time he was filming it and sending a voice message to some grouping," he said.

"He told me to repeat it; we did it; and he congratulated us that we had allegedly joined some grouping banned in the Russian Federation," another teenager says in the video.

"He said, ‘Everyone has already said it, you say it too.’ I repeated after him," another detainee has confirmed.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 19, 2025 at 11:05 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.