In Russia, a 17-year-old boy was sentenced to six years in prison. He had thrown Molotov cocktails at two military recruitment centers.
Yegor Balazeikin and his mother at a court hearing in St. Petersburg in November 2023 Photo: Olga Maltseva/afp
Until recently, it would have been unthinkable for Tatiana Balazeikina to speak publicly about politics, let alone the war in Ukraine. “For a long time we thought that politics was not for us,” says the 45-year-old Russian, who lives with her family in Otradnoye, near St. Petersburg. “We had other things on our minds: our house, our work, our family. “I think a lot of people in Russia feel that way.”
It was his son Yegor who brought doubts about the Russian regime to his house. After the death of his uncle on the Ukrainian front, Yegor began covering the war and Russian propaganda with independent media outlets such as jellyfish to inform. “My son told us that it was no longer the time to stay on the sidelines and not have a political opinion.” Yegor became a staunch opponent of the war.
One morning in April, Tatiana Balazeikina is sitting in front of her laptop in her home in Otradnoye, behind her is an Ikea shelf full of notebooks and documents. She has short gray hair and oval horn-rimmed glasses. Balazeikina is fluent in English and teaches the language in Russia.
Her son Yegor is no longer with her. He was arrested in February 2023 when he was just 16 years old. For two nights, Yegor threw homemade Molotov cocktails at military recruiting centers in Kirovsk and St. Petersburg.
The second time, on February 28, 2023, the police caught him. There was no one in the military building at the time of the attack, only a security guard was outside the center. Balazeikin said he waited until 10 pm to make sure no one was hurt.
The attack failed anyway; His incendiary device only produced a few flashes of flame. In none of the attacks were buildings or people injured.
“I didn't expect a fair trial”
Yegor Balazeikin was sentenced to six years in prison in November and is now held in a penal colony. He is now 17 years old and one of Russia's youngest political prisoners. Russia also has him on its list of terrorists and extremists since mid-May. “He loses basic civil rights and will continue to have problems even if he is released,” says his mother.
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According to Amnesty International, those on the list are denied financial services and social assistance without the need for a court order. At the end of December 2023, according to Amnesty, the Russian Financial Monitoring Service's “list of terrorists and extremists” included 13,647 people, of whom 11,286 were designated as “terrorists.” 13 percent of them were women and 106 were under 18 years old.
In total, military recruiting centers in Russia have been the target of attempted arson attacks more than two hundred times since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression. Like Yegor, more than 40 suspects were charged with terrorism.
The sentence against Yegor was confirmed in the second instance at the beginning of April, but Tatiana Balazeikina continues to fight. “Now we go to the next higher level.” Yegor is represented by lawyer Daria Koltsova. Balazeikina can visit her son twice a month, they can talk on the phone several times a week and write letters to each other.
The taz also asked Yegor some questions through his mother. In his responses he appears very calm and determined: “I didn't want to make a statement with my actions, I just did it for myself. I wanted to remain human, I want to be able to continue looking in the mirror and not be one of those who support the war.” The harsh verdict does not surprise him: “I did not expect a fair trial.” He does not want to discuss specific political issues and now says that this It's too dangerous in its current situation.
Before the war, an apolitical family
Yegor is an extraordinary young man. He became interested in the humanities from an early age, particularly history and the social sciences. At the time of his arrest, he was attending a school that was supposed to prepare him for college. In his free time, karate was his favorite activity and he took home numerous trophies in this sport.
Since childhood, Yegor has suffered from autoimmune hepatitis, in which the immune system attacks the cells of his own liver. According to his mother, in prison he only receives basic medical care, but not the additional tests necessary to monitor the evolution of the disease.
In mid-June, Yegor was able to be examined in a hospital. “His values were not good, his illness was progressing,” says his mother. Important court documents that were supposed to be delivered to Yegor were lost in the mail. This also affects his visitation rights: at the moment they are no longer allowed to visit him, he claims.
Neither Yegor nor his family were politically sophisticated before the war of aggression against Ukraine; They supported Putin even more until the death of his uncle. “It's our fault that we were not really interested in politics,” says Tatiana Balazeikina. “All we knew was that there was a war between our country and our neighboring country. That was it. We also didn't know anything about the repression in Russia.” Balazeikina has now teamed up with other families of affected political prisoners. Her life has also fundamentally changed since her son's arrest.
“Do whatever you want with me, I won't change my mind.”
After Yegor's arrest, the police told him not to talk about the war during the investigation, this way he could be acquitted. Yegor stood his ground. Russian secret service FSB officials also threatened him with being raped in the detention center and taken to a psychiatric clinic.
But Yegor said: “Do with me what you want, I will not change my mind.” At least that's what his followers say on a Telegram channel. He told prosecutors about the motive for the crime: “I do not agree with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. So I started talking to people around me to gather information about the Military Registration and Enlistment Office. I realized that conversations were useless and decided that something had to be done to change the situation.”
Although Balazeikina seems combative, she knows what opponents of the war are currently doing in her country. “There is no authorized human rights organization in Russia that can deal with these cases,” she says, referring mainly to the banning of the NGO Memorial at the end of 2021.
There is one phrase in particular that comprehensively describes their situation: “We are waiting for better days.” Courageous people like your son could help make this hope a little more realistic.