A Russian military court on Thursday sentenced three 16-year-old boys, two of them to suspended sentences and the third, Nikita Uvarov, to five years in a camp for "undergoing training in terrorist activity".

Prosecutors relied on social media chats between the three.

The boys come from the city of Kansk in the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk, which has a population of almost 90,000, and were 14 years old at the time of their arrest in 2020;

in Russia, too, criminal responsibility begins at this age.

Frederick Smith

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.

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The three friends had pasted leaflets in their hometown, for example one against social inequality on the building of the pension fund and one in support of political prisoners on the agency of the secret service FSB.

After the arrest, according to law enforcement officials, the three were interrogated day and night without legal guardians being admitted to them.

Two of the boys made statements incriminating Uvarov, who was then portrayed as the "leader".

They later retracted the statements.

On the boys' smartphones, the investigators found chats on the social networks "Vkontakte" and "Telegram", which were about politics, music and firecrackers.

The students are also said to have discussed the fact that the computer game "Minecraft" could be used to simulate the demolition of security forces' buildings.

Those in power use the case to justify ever-expanding control over the Internet.

According to Alexandr Bortnikov, head of the investigative committee, terrorists use computer games to "draw users into game situations in which they carry out terrorist attacks".

The Kansker students were also accused of making and storing “explosives”;

these were firecrackers, which they set off in gardens or ruins.

The boy wants to appeal

Nikita Uvarov, who denied any guilt from the start, was in custody from June 2020 to May 2021;

he reported on pressure and health problems in prison.

One of his friends was under house arrest, the other initially also, but was then held in custody for ten months because he had used the Internet in violation of the regulations.

The fact that the boys were free to await trial last May may have been due to public support.

Plans to charge her with founding a terrorist organization were dropped.

Even so, the minors were threatened with imprisonment for up to ten years.

On Monday, Uvarov said in his closing statement in court that he had experienced the "despotism of unscrupulous system workers" himself.

If he has to start a prison sentence, "I will start it with a clear conscience and with dignity".

He was not the leader, "we were equal and just friends." The boy thanked him for the support he and his mother received.

The court asked Uvarov to allow him to finish school and continue his education, and he wanted to be "far away" from the intelligence agents.

The boy wants to appeal, but is now being held in custody again;

a photo taken by his mother from the court session shows him handcuffed to a person sitting nearby.

According to journalists, 35 cases have been opened in Russia since 2017 against young people accused of mass murder, terrorist attacks or extremist acts.

In none of the cases were people injured, there were only allegations from investigators that the students wanted to do something.