Russian anti-war teenager faces five years in jail after failed appeal

One of Russia’s youngest political prisoners has lost an appeal to overturn a five-year jail sentence.

Arseny Turbin was only 15 when he was arrested in the summer of 2023.

Authorities accused him of joining the Freedom of Russia Legion – a paramilitary unit composed of Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine against the Russian army.

The Freedom of Russia Legion is designated as terrorist organisation by Russia, and Arseny was sentenced to five years in a juvenile colony. On Thursday, the court of appeal reduced his five-year term – but only by 24 days.

Arseny is one of nine minors who have faced politically motivated criminal charges since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent crackdown on civil liberties, according to Russian human rights organisation OVD-Info.

He denies all the charges against him. He says he researched the legion but that he never applied and has committed no crime. His mother Irina also maintains he is innocent.

“I just don’t understand the judge who handed down the sentence,” she told the BBC.

Investigators have also claimed Arseny distributed leaflets critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the legion’s behalf.

He admitted to distributing leaflets but denied following instructions from anybody.

Arseny did openly criticise Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin in school.

He was also politically active on social media, reposting content from Russian opposition figures and occasionally sharing his own political content, including a video in which he can be seen holding a solo picket in support of late opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

His mother says he was acting of his own accord and not on the instructions of the Freedom of Russia Legion.

Yet, in late August 2023, agents from the FSB, Russia’s security service, searched Arseny’s home in the small town of Livny, 450km (280 miles) south of Moscow, and confiscated his electronic devices.

The next day he was summoned for questioning and accused of joining the Freedom of Russia Legion.

“I was hysterical, I was shaking, crying,” says his mother. “Arseny told me: ‘Mum, calm down, I didn’t commit any crime, they will work it out.'”

No lawyer was present during the interrogation, which Irina deeply regrets. She believes the FSB subsequently added to the transcript a confession of guilt that Arseny never made.

Some of his schoolmates were questioned by investigators and said Arseny would often criticise Putin and Russia’s actions in Ukraine. But in their statements – which the BBC has seen – none of them said he had a connection to the Freedom of Russia Legion.

Nevertheless, Arseny was formally arrested the following week.

He spent several months under house arrest as he awaited sentencing. Then, last June, he was transferred to a Moscow detention centre, where he has been detained ever since.

In that time, his mother says his weight has dropped from 69kg to 52kg as he struggled with lack of appetite due to constant stress.

Irina also noticed he has withdrawn emotionally, and that he often asks why he is punished for something he did not do.

For a time Arseny also had a violent cellmate who attacked him, hit him on the head and threatened him.

Speaking to the BBC, Irina and Arseny’s teachers painted a picture of a highly intelligent and politically engaged young man who now faces several long years in jail for a crime he did not commit.

His mother said from a young age Arseny had been passionate about science, particularly physics and economics.

He had dreamed of studying political science at a prestigious Moscow university. “He wanted to improve life in Russia,” his mother said.

She spoke of her son having a strong sense of justice, which he developed after experiencing bullying at school.

He was frequently mocked and called derogatory names because he was born in Dubai and his father was from the United Arab Emirates.

Irina says that since his arrest Arseny no longer has any friends, as most have distanced themselves from him.

Her neighbours and co-workers even accuse her of having “raised a terrorist”, she says.

If Arseny really was innocent, they argue, the court would have acquitted him. She believes they don’t fully understand how the Russian judicial system works.

Her standard response is to hope they never have to encounter the system themselves.

“But if you do, you’ll find out.”