Screenshot of The Insider on YouTube, Nikita Uvarov.
Elena is a housewife and lives in a small Russian city not removed from Moscow. One Sunday morning she heard her 8-year outdated son screaming with delight: “Mother, I killed Putin! Simply shot him proper within the head!” She was terrified.
After all, her son didn’t really shoot anybody. He additionally didn’t know who Putin was. Actually, he was enjoying one an internet capturing online game, the place different folks take aliases to take part. However Elena’s worry was genuine: in right this moment’s Russia, youngsters are punished for saying and doing lower than that.
On January 17, 2023, the Russian Supreme courtroom upheld the 5-year jail sentence that Nikita Uvarov obtained for taking part in Minecraft when he was 16.
As Radio Liberty reported in February 2022, Nikita and the 2 different boys, Denis Mikhailenko and Bogdan Andreev, had been 14 once they had been arrested in 2020 in Krasnoyarskii krai in Siberia. On the time of arrest that they had glued a leaflet to a neighborhood FSB. The FSB is the Federal safety service in Russia, a legislation enforcement construction that’s the successor of the KGB. constructing to help Azat Miftakhov, a Tatar-Russian mathematician and political activist. Azat was in police custody in Moscow on the time for allegedly breaking the window and throwing a grenade to pro-government’s celebration workplace. He was himself solely 26 years outdated, a PhD pupil in Moscow.
After arresting the boys, the police confiscated their telephones and later claimed they discovered chats within the telephones the place mates deliberate so as to add the FSB constructing to the Minecraft sport and blow it up there. The FSB is the Federal safety service in Russia, a legislation enforcement construction that’s the successor of the KGB.
The investigators additionally said that the boys criticized the FSB, learn banned books, made DIY firecrackers, and blew them up in deserted buildings of their native city, Kansk within the Krasnoyarsk krai of Russia.
Whereas filmed by the native TV throughout his first trial in 2022, Nikita mentioned he was “grateful” to all those that supported him and his mates.
As Nikita’s lawyer mentioned to the native media on 17 January 17, 2023, to this point they’ve appealed thrice, however the verdict was unchanged. “All we requested for was a suspended sentence for him to complete serving his sentence exterior the jail. Nikita was prepared for what occurred. The household had hope, however within the present scenario it’s unrealistic,” mentioned Nikita’s lawyer Vladimir Vasin.
Days earlier than his trial in 2022, Nikita and his mother talked to Insider media about fabrications in his case. There’s a web site devoted to the Kansk youngsters case, and a Telegram channel. Nikita Uvarov will probably be transferred to a jail for adults as soon as he turns 18 years outdated.
