Russian teenager handed 5-year sentence for plotting to blow up a building in Minecraft

[midian182]

WTF?! Russia has sentenced a teenager to five years in prison for plotting to blow up a government building. While that might not sound out of the ordinary, the building in question was a virtual recreation within the video game Minecraft.

Nikita Uvarov, Denis Mikhailenko, and Bogdan Andreyev from Kansk in Siberia were arrested in June 2020 when they were just 14 years old. According to the Moscow Times, the trio were apprehended for hanging leaflets on the real Federal Security Services (FSB) building that called the agency a "terrorist" and praised an anarchist mathematician who went to prison for six years for "hooliganism."

The FSB searched the kids’ phones and found videos of them making pyrotechnics and allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at a wall. There was also evidence of a plot to blow up a virtual representation of the FSB building they had created in Minecraft.

The real FSB building in Moscow's Lubyanskaya Square

The three were charged with undergoing training for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities, a violation of criminal code of the Russian Federation Article 205.3. Mikhailenko and Andreyev pleaded guilty to the charges and were placed under house arrest. Uvarov denied his guilt and was placed in a pre-trial detention center where he claims to have been subjected to mental and physical pressure to confess.

The 1st Eastern Military Court in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region found all the boys guilty last week. Mikhailenko and Andreyev were handed three and four-year suspended sentences, respectively, because they cooperated with investigators. Uvarov, who was found guilty of illegal weapons possession and passing through training for implementation of a terrorist act, was sentenced to five years in a penal colony.

The sentences could have been even more severe if the initial charge of "participating in a terrorist organisation" hadn’t been dropped due to lack of evidence. Uvarov previously said he would serve any prison time "with a clear conscience and dignity," adding that "For the last time in this court I want to say: I am not a terrorist."

h/t: The Reg

FSB building image credit: Russian International News Agency (RIA Novosti)

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/93386-russian-teenager-handed-5-year-sentence-plotting-blow.html

 

[Nobina]

What do Counter Strike players get then? Death sentance?

 

[Squid Surprise]

Wow, talk about a misleading title... they didn't get a jail sentence for plotting to blow up a Minecraft building - they got it for their OTHER activities!!

I suspect the molotov cocktails were slightly more serious than their plots to destroy a virtual building.. Techspot, shame on you...

 

[Inthenstus]

Wow, talk about a misleading title... they didn't get a jail sentence for plotting to blow up a Minecraft building - they got it for their OTHER activities!!

I suspect the molotov cocktails were slightly more serious than their plots to destroy a virtual building.. Techspot, shame on you...

Agreed.. very misleading.

 

[Sausagemeat]

See, always practise making and throwing Molotov cocktails when you aren’t actively playing any games and they can’t touch you.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Wow, talk about a misleading title... they didn't get a jail sentence for plotting to blow up a Minecraft building - they got it for their OTHER activities!!

I suspect the molotov cocktails were slightly more serious than their plots to destroy a virtual building.. Techspot, shame on you...

Relax - it made you read the story - how much prison time for practicing throwing cocktails - and for blowing up Ukrainian Parliament and killing gay people or Africans in a virtual world - not many if any .

It's all very tenuous at best - they are teens fantasying - yeah 5 years prison get some TB all good .

The USA is full of people practising "military" ops . Apparently the Antifa has planes in the air- able to strike anyone - yet no one is too concerned ( source former POTUS ) .

Let's get realistic - just how many videos do you think there are in Russia of people throwing petrol/vodka Molotov cocktails -I would imagine over a 1000000 men in Russian have made and thrown one . How many here have made a petrol bomb, a bolt bomb, a rocket, a match or fireworks bomb ?- even thrown rocks at State Assets - eg old railway shed

This sentence is 100% political - so the title is kind of 100% correct - killing gays , blowing up Ukrainians in VR - just all Russian Heroes - hell even in real life - may still be.

As an aside --
[HEADING=1]The Gulag Archipelago[/HEADING]
Book by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - a good book to read about the human condition

 

[Squid Surprise]

Relax - it made you read the story - how much prison time for practicing throwing cocktails - and for blowing up Ukrainian Parliament and killing gay people or Africans in a virtual world - not many if any .

It's all very tenuous at best - they are teens fantasying - yeah 5 years prison get some TB all good .

The USA is full of people practising "military" ops . Apparently the Antifa has planes in the air- able to strike anyone - yet no one is too concerned ( source former POTUS ) .

Let's get realistic - just how many videos do you think there are in Russia of people throwing petrol/vodka Molotov cocktails -I would imagine over a 1000000 men in Russian have made and thrown one . How many here have made a petrol bomb, a bolt bomb, a rocket, a match or fireworks bomb ?- even thrown rocks at State Assets - eg old railway shed

This sentence is 100% political - so the title is kind of 100% correct - killing gays , blowing up Ukrainians in VR - just all Russian Heroes - hell even in real life - may still be.

As an aside --
[HEADING=1]The Gulag Archipelago[/HEADING]
Book by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - a good book to read about the human condition

Whatever nonsense you just spouted doesn't change the fact that this was a VERY misleading healdine - aka clickbait... Teschspot used to be better than this.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Whatever nonsense you just spouted doesn't change the fact that this was a VERY misleading healdine - aka clickbait... Teschspot used to be better than this.

Thanks for addressing my points - that this sentencing is purely political.
That people who attack minorities or gay people are very really if ever prospected in Russia .

That lots of Russian men have made and thrown molotov cocktails with inpunity.

There is lots of political prisoners in Russia.

Stand up and dispute that this is not a jail sentence as a crack down on a political activity .

Just because you have no awareness that Putin uses the State to imprison and silence dissenters , political opponents - reflects on your lack of knowledge .
You have shown no desire to critique my points - or engage .
You have solely stated your belief that he was mainly sentenced for other activities . DID YOU EVEN read the story ?
"Uvarov, who was found guilty of illegal weapons possession and passing through training for implementation of a terrorist act"
You don't get 5 years as a 14 year old for illegal weapon possession = if was the training for a terrorist act . What was that training - simulated blowing up a building in Virtual World
So the title is 100% correct.

Do you know how special forces train ?
Do you know how terrorist's train ?
Do you know how Super Bowl teams run tactics on media?

The conspiracy charge was dropped

It can not have been for handing out leaflets as that is not training -that is doing.

So you are 100% wrong and all those who upvoted you

Awaiting a proper considered reply

 

[umbala]

Thanks for addressing my points - that this sentencing is purely political.
That people who attack minorities or gay people are very really if ever prospected in Russia .

That lots of Russian men have made and thrown molotov cocktails with inpunity.

There is lots of political prisoners in Russia.

Stand up and dispute that this is not a jail sentence as a crack down on a political activity .

Just because you have no awareness that Putin uses the State to imprison and silence dissenters , political opponents - reflects on your lack of knowledge .
You have shown no desire to critique my points - or engage .
You have solely stated your belief that he was mainly sentenced for other activities . DID YOU EVEN read the story ?
"Uvarov, who was found guilty of illegal weapons possession and passing through training for implementation of a terrorist act"
You don't get 5 years as a 14 year old for illegal weapon possession = if was the training for a terrorist act . What was that training - simulated blowing up a building in Virtual World
So the title is 100% correct.

Do you know how special forces train ?
Do you know how terrorist's train ?
Do you know how Super Bowl teams run tactics on media?

The conspiracy charge was dropped

It can not have been for handing out leaflets as that is not training -that is doing.

So you are 100% wrong and all those who upvoted you

Awaiting a proper considered reply

Cool story bro!

 

[bluetooth fairy]

No, they didn't

https://meduza-io.translate.goog/fe..._sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=ru&_x_tr_pto=wapp

The case has political subtle not an IT one.

Also, in the linked Moscow Times article teens are called teens (they were 14 yo), not kids like Rob called them here. And this is also where 'journalism' could be better. There's actually no need to demonize Russia.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Thanks for addressing my points - that this sentencing is purely political.
That people who attack minorities or gay people are very really if ever prospected in Russia .

That lots of Russian men have made and thrown molotov cocktails with inpunity.

There is lots of political prisoners in Russia.

Stand up and dispute that this is not a jail sentence as a crack down on a political activity .

Just because you have no awareness that Putin uses the State to imprison and silence dissenters , political opponents - reflects on your lack of knowledge .
You have shown no desire to critique my points - or engage .
You have solely stated your belief that he was mainly sentenced for other activities . DID YOU EVEN read the story ?
"Uvarov, who was found guilty of illegal weapons possession and passing through training for implementation of a terrorist act"
You don't get 5 years as a 14 year old for illegal weapon possession = if was the training for a terrorist act . What was that training - simulated blowing up a building in Virtual World
So the title is 100% correct.

Do you know how special forces train ?
Do you know how terrorist's train ?
Do you know how Super Bowl teams run tactics on media?

The conspiracy charge was dropped

It can not have been for handing out leaflets as that is not training -that is doing.

So you are 100% wrong and all those who upvoted you

Awaiting a proper considered reply

I won't deny that Russia is a brutal dictatorship... or that Putin is a jerk...
My complaint is simply with the headline of this story... If the story was about suppressing human rights, marginalizing of homosexuality, etc... it would be on a political website, not a tech one.

This headline implies (I'd argue flat out states) that this 14-year-old was given a 5 year sentence for planning to blow up a building in Minecraft!!!

This is NOT true!!! The government (rightly or wrongly) accused him of a bunch of stuff - and the plans to blow up a virtual building was merely a bit of evidence proving their larger case.

 

[BigRedPDX]

Really... what did they actually destroy? Hopefully no one flies into a building on Microsoft Flight Simulator. Video games need to be taken out of this whole "terrorist plot" idea. Doom was considered a "virtual training ground" for the Columbine shootings. It's just a game they enjoyed. I probably would try to blow up that building in Minecraft too, but as a griefer

 

[erickmendes]

In Russia you don't blow up a building... It's the building that blow you up.