<\/strong>Irina says he staged a solo protest in their hometown and printed out leaflets that read \u201cI am against Putin\u201d and \u201cfreedom for political prisoners,\u201d among other anti-government slogans. She tried her best to discourage him, fearing what might happen. <\/p>\n \u201cHe said \u2018Mom, don\u2019t worry, I\u2019m not violating the law,\u2019\u201d Irina recounted. She told him the authorities would go after them, but he didn\u2019t believe her. <\/p>\n
Early on August 29, 2023, officers from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) knocked on their door. They searched the apartment and took away personal items including a tablet, a laptop, and cell phones. <\/p>\n
Arseny was placed under house arrest in September with the right to attend school. In the fall of 2023, Russia\u2019s financial monitoring agency designated Turbin as a \u201cterrorist and extremist\u201d on its official list. \ufeffThen this summer, on June 20, came the sentencing. <\/p>\n
Arseny\u2019s is not an isolated case. Russian law permits the prosecution of children as young as 14 for serious crimes, including terrorism and treason \u2014 broad charges increasingly pursued against young people since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, said Sergei Davidis, who heads the Political Prisoners Support Program at Memorial Human Rights Center. <\/p>\n
This reflects a broader escalation in Moscow\u2019s crackdown on dissent, which began before the war but has intensified since February 2022. Since then, at least 20,070 people have been detained for anti-war views, and 9,369 cases of \u201cdiscrediting the army\u201d have been recorded, relating to actions including social media posts or wearing clothes with Ukrainian flag symbols, said Dmitry Anisimov, spokesperson for OVD-Info. <\/p>\n
Parents and caregivers have also been targeted through harassment, arbitrary arrests, and even threats of losing custody of their children, according to independent monitoring organizations such as OVD-Info and Memorial. <\/p>\n
The Kremlin consistently denies the existence of political prisoners in Russia, claiming all incarcerations are based on legal violations, despite human rights organizations indicating otherwise. <\/p>\n
Kevin Lick, a 19-year-old dual Russian-German citizen, knows the price of dissent in modern Russia all too well. Arrested at 17, a year after the war in Ukraine began, he was sentenced to serve four years in a penal colony, becoming the youngest person in modern Russian history ever to be convicted of state treason. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors accused him of photographing military objects with the intent to share them with foreign intelligence \u2013 claims Lick denies. <\/p>\n
During his imprisonment, the teenager says he was put in solitary confinement, endured physical abuse and brutal prison conditions. \u201cLooking back, of course, it left scars,\u201d he said, acknowledging his ongoing struggle with PTSD. <\/p>\n
Lick was released in August as part of a major prisoner swap between Russia, the United States and other Western nations. Although it was the largest prisoner swap since the Cold War, the detainees freed account for less than 2% of the total number of political prisoners held in prisons in Russia. <\/p>\n
According to OVD-Info, at least 2,942 people are facing criminal prosecution for political reasons in Russia, with 1,402 currently in detention, including those awaiting trial or undergoing court-ordered compulsory treatment. <\/p>\n
Reunited with his family in Germany, Lick now advocates for political prisoners, marching alongside Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexey Navalny, and other exiled opposition leaders, at a protest last month in Berlin. <\/p>\n
Lick maintains there are many more people, including teenagers, who are facing repression in Russia for their anti-war stance. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not just statistics,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are part of Russia and part of the future of Russia. And we must ensure that this feature is not stolen by the government.\u201d <\/p>\n
Addressing young Russians, he urges them to resist conscription. \u201cIf they are going to enlist you in the military, just don\u2019t go. In my opinion, it is better to go to prison than being a killing machine in Ukraine.\u201d <\/p>\n
While conditions in detention are supposed to be slightly more lenient for teenagers than for adults, juvenile penal colonies can in fact be even harsher due to the chaotic and violent environment among young inmates, said Davidis, of Memorial. <\/p>\n
Davidis believes young people are pursued for prosecution by the state because they are seen as less intimidated by government authority, less influenced by propaganda, and more likely to act against perceived unfairness. <\/p>\n
While independent Russian media have covered Turbin\u2019s case in detail, state media outlets have not \u2013 perhaps because much of the proceedings has been held behind closed doors. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, usually we do not have access to the cases, to the details of their cases,\u201d Davidis said, with the state citing privacy concerns because they involve minors. <\/p>\n
Other experts, among them Nina Khrushcheva, professor of international affairs at the New School and great-granddaughter of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, point to the country\u2019s long history of using fear and indoctrination to maintain control. <\/p>\n
The Russian state seeks to shape citizens\u2019 views starting in early childhood, Khrushcheva said. \u201cBecause they think from a young age, if you brainwashed them the right way, then at the age of 16, they say \u2018wonderful, Putin is great.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
When children are too young to face prosecution under Russian law, it\u2019s not unknown for a parent to bear the brunt. Such was the case for entrepreneur and single father Alexey Moskalyov, who was sentenced to nearly two years in prison for \u201cdiscrediting the Russian army\u201d on social media. <\/p>\n
The charges against him came shortly after his then-12-year-old daughter, Masha, drew an anti-war picture in April 2022, two months into Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. The drawing featured a Russian flag with the words \u201cNo to war,\u201d a Ukrainian flag with the inscription \u201cGlory to Ukraine,\u201d and a woman shielding her child from missiles fired from Russia. The picture drew the attention of school authorities; Moskalyov was initially fined and then incarcerated for his own online posts critical of the war, <\/strong>while Masha was temporarily put in an orphanage. <\/p>\n Released in October, Moskalyov emerged from prison gaunt and wearing a thin, faded prison uniform. Video footage showed him embracing his tearful daughter. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe conditions were\u2026 there are no words to describe it. It was simply a torture chamber,\u201d he said, recounting the brutal experience. Held in a tiny cell, sometimes shared with another prisoner or rats from the sewers, he had to spend 16 hours a day on his feet in frigid temperatures. <\/p>\n
The harsh conditions in Russian prisons have taken a toll on prisoners of conscience, with some losing their lives, like the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny. <\/p>\n
Reflecting on the fate of the opposition leader her 16-year-old son so looked up to, Turbina struggles to imagine what kind of bleak future Arseny might be facing. <\/p>\n
\u201cGod forbid\u2026 repeating Alexey Navalny\u2019s fate. It\u2019s just beyond\u2026 (words). In this case\u2026 it will probably be impossible to survive,\u201d she said, her voice trembling before she paused to regain her composure. <\/p>\n
She hopes, as a child, her son will receive some protection. And, for now, she has a message for Arseny: \u201cWe need to accept what is happening, not give up hope and keep fighting.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On a cold November morning, Irina Turbina packs bags filled with food, adds two large shower gels, two bulky packs of toilet paper, nail clippers, a novel, and a geography atlas, and sets out on a grueling two-day trip. The bags and books are for her son, 16-year-old Arseny. It might be her last chance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}