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Yegor Balaseykin in a glass cage in the court in St. Petersburg: "Do you still need this war?"

Photo: Andrey Bok

Fifteen masked police officers and prison officials took up positions in the courtroom as the presiding judge of the military court of the Second Western District in St. Petersburg read out the verdict against Yegor Balaseykin. The student has to be imprisoned for six years – for attempted terrorist attacks. Balaseykin will serve his sentence in an educational colony, according to the decision of the three judges on Wednesday.

With the sentence, they followed the prosecutor's demand. He had previously requested six years in prison for Balaseykin.

It is a harsh punishment for a young man who had no choice but to protest against the war with Molotov cocktails.

"I didn't want to hurt anyone"

At the end of February 2023, when he was still 16 years old, Balaseykin threw a Molotov cocktail at the building of an army recruitment office in Kirovsk, an hour's drive from St. Petersburg. The flames suffocated immediately, and there was hardly any material damage: the student left behind diesel stains, broken glass and the remains of a rag. The security authorities also accuse Balaseykin of planning a second attack on a recruitment agency in St. Petersburg. However, the teenager did not throw a Molotov cocktail at the military building there, but only stayed nearby.

During the trial, Balaseykin admitted on Wednesday that he had tried to set fire to military authorities. However, he denied having carried out terrorist attacks. He had decided to set the fire in the recruitment office at night so as not to endanger people who might be there. "I didn't want to hurt anyone," Balaseykin clarified.

Before the verdict was announced, he made it clear that he opposes Russia's war against Ukraine. He asked about the meaning of this large-scale attack, asking all those who love and respect it to ask themselves the question: "Do you still need this war?"

He knew what he was going to be imprisoned for, Balaseykin said: "I was guilty of my indifference. At the beginning [of the war] I didn't care, and that's worse than supporting the war." If he had known what would happen to the people closest to him, "I wouldn't have stayed away."

Turning to his parents, who did not question the war against Ukraine at first, even when he was already critical of it, the student said: "It always tore me apart when you didn't understand me. I buried Dmitry with you and stood by you, and then I just walked away from you to the recruiting office."

Dmitry Balaseykin, Yegor's uncle, was killed in Ukraine in June last year. The officer had volunteered for the war effort.

The prosecutor accused the student of betraying his uncle and "stabbing his country in the back."

Questioned for hours without parents and lawyer

The juvenile's defense pointed to several violations of the law by law enforcement. Among other things, the then 16-year-old student Balaseykin had been questioned for hours after his arrest, without his parents or a lawyer being present. No one pointed out to the minor that he does not have to testify against himself, said Balaseykin's lawyer.

The court had rejected all expert reports submitted by the defense on Wednesday, including an expert opinion on Yegor Balaseykin's chronic illness. The now 17-year-old has suffered from a rare autoimmune hepatitis since childhood. In detention, Yegor's liver values had deteriorated, said mother Tatyana Balaseykina. She announced that she would appeal against the verdict, but it has little chance of success.

Russia's security agencies have reacted harshly to Molotov attacks against military authorities: more than 40 of the defendants, like Yegor, are already accused of terrorist crimes. Like the student, they face years in prison.