A Russian military court has jailed a schoolgirl as a ‘Ukrainian spy’ and branded her a ‘terrorist’ for allegedly trying to attack a railway when she was 14.
The girl, now 15, has been jailed for five years in a penal colony for seeking to set fire to railway signalling equipment at Bugach station on the Trans Siberian Railway.
There was no impact on train movements, and she reported her attempt to her handler ‘based outside Russia’, a term seen as a euphemism for Ukrainian secret services.
The Russian Investigative Committee said foreign intelligence agencies actively recruit teenagers to take part in sabotage and terrorist activities, using social media and popular messaging apps.
They said: ‘Anyone who receives an offer to commit an unlawful act should contact law enforcement.
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‘Criminal responsibility for these offences begins at the age of 14 and carries severe penalties, including lengthy prison sentences.’
The schoolgirl said she had been offered £182 to carry out the arson attack.
She said: ‘They just messaged me. The job involved damaging property…at first, I didn’t want to do it at all. I told them that if it was anything illegal, I certainly wouldn’t take part.’
Her handler ‘even gave advice on how to carry it out as safely as possible’.
The girl added: ‘I hid the clothes I was wearing when the crime was committed….so I could wash them later, so my parents wouldn’t notice.’
At least 158 minors were convicted of terrorism and sabotage-related offences in the first three years of the full-scale war, according to an analysis of Russian Supreme Court figures.
Independent investigators have documented hundreds of teenage suspects as Russian secret services scour for enemies of Putin’s state.
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