Russian police have arrested three teenagers who planned to destroy the building of the FSB, the country’s security agency, in Minecraft. Authorities reported finding videos of them making Molotov cocktails in their phones. Two of them have pleaded guilty, while the other maintains his innocence.
Certainly one of the most popular video games of all time, Minecraft is nonetheless an nest of controversies. Regularly the target of hackers, the latter is sometimes even the cause of problems at the national level, such as the recent Internet shutdown that hit Andorra during a tournament within the game. Also, the authorities seem to be closely monitoring this that happens on the servers, as evidenced by the recent sentencing of three teenagers.
Nikita Uvarov, Denis Mikhailenko and Bogdan Andreyev, three Russian nationals living in Siberia, were arrested in June 2020 for distributing flyers near the FSB, the country’s security agency. Above, we could read “The FSB is the real terrorist.” All three were 14 years old at the time of the facts. Today they are found guilty of “to undergo training in order to carry out terrorist activities” by the military court in Krasnoyarsk.
3 teenagers sentenced for planning the destruction of a Russian building in Minecraft
During the investigation, the police revealed that they had found videos in the telephones of the three teenagers showing them in the process of making explosive products and throwing Molotov cocktails at walls. In addition, they also discovered their project of destroy the virtual version of the FSB building recreated in Minecraft. Denis Mikhailenko and Bogdan Andreyev both pleaded guilty and received 3 and 4 years in prison respectively.
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Nikita Uvarov was sentenced to 5 years in prison, but he still claims his innocence to this day. He claims to have undergone physical and psychological violence by investigators to push him to confession. “I wanted to learn something new, I liked to learn something about physics, chemistry, biology, about various famous scientists; I was also watching science and education programs”he explained in front of the judges.
“I am not a terrorist, I am not guilty”he added. “I would just like to finish my studies, get an education and go somewhere far from here, somewhere where I don’t irritate anyone from the special services”. “I always knew where he was, even when they were making those bombs. But it was a little kiddie prank, a kiddie bombshell.”defended the mother of Denis Mikhailenko.
Source: The Moscow Times
