A teenage Russian anti-war activist faces five years in prison after a failed appeal

One of Russia’s youngest political prisoners has lost a bid to overturn a five-year prison sentence.

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

The authorities accused him of joining the Freedom of Russia Legion – a military unit made up of Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine against the Russian army.

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

Arseny is one of 9 children who have faced politically-related crimes since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent crackdown on civil liberties, according to the Russian human rights organization OVD-Info.

He denies all the charges against him. He says he did research on the Legion but did not apply and did not commit any crime. His mother Irina also confirms that he is innocent.

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

Investigators also said Arseny distributed leaflets criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin on behalf of the legion.

He admitted that he was distributing leaflets but denied that he was following instructions from anyone.

Arseny openly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin at the school.

He has also been politically active on social media, retweeting content from Russian dissidents and occasionally sharing his own political content, including a video in which he appears to hold a solo curtain in support of the late politician Alexei Navalny.

His mother says he was doing it for himself and not on the orders of the Freedom of Russia Legion.

However, in late August 2023, agents of the FSB, Russia’s security service, searched Arseny’s home in the small town of Livny, 450 kilometers south of Moscow, and confiscated his electronics.

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

His mother says: “I was surprised, I was shaking, I was crying.” Arseny said to me: ‘Mother, calm down, I did not commit a crime, they will do justice.

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

Some of his classmates were questioned by investigators and they said that Arseny often criticized the actions of Putin and Russia in Ukraine. But in their statements – seen by the BBC – none of them said they were connected to the Freedom of Russia Legion.

Nevertheless, Arseny was legally arrested the following week.

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

During that time, his mother says that his weight dropped from 69kg to 52kg as he has a problem with not wanting to eat due to constant stress.

Irina also noticed that she has become emotionally withdrawn, and that she often questions why she is being punished for something she did not do.

For a time Arseny had a violent man in his cell 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 very intelligent and politically involved young man now facing years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

His mother said that since he was young, Arseny loved science, especially physics and economics.

He wanted to study political science at the famous Moscow university. “He wanted to improve life in Russia,” said his mother.

He spoke of his son having a strong sense of justice, who grew up after being bullied at school.

He was always teased and called names because he was born in Dubai and his father is from the United Arab Emirates.

Irina says that since Arseny was arrested, she no longer has friends, as most have distanced themselves from her.

His neighbors and co-workers even accused him of “raising terrorists,” he said.

If Arseny was truly innocent, they argue, the court would acquit him. He believes they do not fully understand how the Russian justice system works.

His usual reaction is to hope that they will never encounter the system themselves.

“But if you do, you’ll see for yourself.”