Sad news has come from Kuzbass. A seventeen-year-old resident of the city of Belovo was sentenced to four years in a juvenile correctional colony for leaving paid reactions on Telegram under posts published by a channel associated with a Ukrainian military unit.
The Russian Investigative Committee reported that the teenager had been found guilty under Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of the Russian Criminal Code — “financing terrorism.”
According to the investigators and the court, between November and December 2025, he financed the activities of an organisation designated as terrorist and banned in Russia “by making a cashless transfer of funds through his account in a messaging application, using the paid reaction function under posts published by the channel.”
The Investigative Committee specifically noted that the teenager’s activities had been uncovered in cooperation with officers of the regional branch of Russia’s Federal Security Service. The court considered the evidence collected by the investigators sufficient to deliver a guilty verdict.
Thus, several paid reactions in a messaging application were classified by a Russian court as “financing terrorism” and became grounds for four years of imprisonment.
The precise amount has not been disclosed. However, judging by the price of Telegram Stars, it was most likely a very small sum:
10 Stars — approximately 18–22 rubles;
100 Stars — 180–230 rubles.
And this is not the first such case.
But how are we, ordinary mortals, supposed to regard this so-called fight against “terrorism financing” involving a sum that may not have exceeded 200 rubles, when there are entirely different examples of paid “reactions” — involving actual killings, enormous expenditure and state awards?
Let us examine several such cases.
1. Andrei Lugovoy
Here, the price of the “reaction” was far higher than 200 rubles. Early reports estimated the value of the polonium used to murder Alexander Litvinenko at tens of millions of dollars, with a figure of approximately 20 million dollars being cited in particular.
This “reaction” resulted in the actual death of a human being and endangered numerous people who may have found themselves close to the radioactive substance.
Everything is present here: a murder committed on the territory of another country, the use of an extremely dangerous radioactive material, enormous alleged expenditure — and, as the icing on the cake, the subsequent state decoration of Andrei Lugovoy by a decree of the president of Russia.
2. Sergei Khadzhikurbanov
How should we interpret the next award — and what was it really given for, considering the identity of the recipient?
Sergei Khadzhikurbanov was sentenced to 20 years in prison as one of the organisers of the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
After being sent to fight in the war against Ukraine, he was reportedly awarded the Order of Courage and other medals, according to Baza, citing a person close to him.
The state first sends a man convicted in a case concerning the murder of a journalist to another war and then decorates him for “courage.” Considering the status of this state award, are we certain that it was presented solely for his participation in the war against Ukraine?
3. The 64th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade
This example sounds especially revealing and especially blasphemous.
On 18 April 2022, Vladimir Putin officially awarded the 64th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade the honorary title of “Guards” for its “mass heroism and courage.”
This wording appeared after evidence of the mass killing of civilians in Bucha had become known to the world. The United Nations later documented the killing of at least 73 civilians there and established that Russian servicemen had carried out numerous extrajudicial executions in the Kyiv region.
Was this, then, the very “mass heroism and courage” being honoured — considering how rarely such distinctions are awarded, particularly when an honorary title is granted to an entire military unit operating in a specific area?
Against the background of actual mass killings, the words “mass heroism and courage” become a horrifying mockery of us all and of the memory of those who were killed.
How are we supposed to regard all of this?
A seventeen-year-old teenager must spend four years in a correctional colony for the so-called financing of terrorism through paid Telegram reactions — possibly involving no more than a few dozen or a few hundred rubles.
The Investigative Committee and the regional branch of the FSB were mobilised to identify these reactions, and the materials they collected became the basis for a conviction under one of the gravest articles of Russian criminal law.
At the same time, the head of state himself rewards people associated with the murders of prominent individuals or the mass killing of civilians, glorifies military units against the background of documented war crimes, releases convicted maniacs and serial killers from prison and sends them to commit further killings in the war against Ukraine. The state also spends vast amounts of taxpayers’ money organising, supplying and continuing these killings.
Afterwards, many of these people are pardoned and returned to Russian cities — often without serving the sentences imposed on them by the courts and with an obvious risk that they may commit further crimes.
It turns out that several Telegram Stars become “financing terrorism” when sent by a teenager and serve as grounds for destroying his entire life. Meanwhile, killings, mass deaths and war crimes financed from the state budget can become grounds for a pardon, an order or an honorary title.
In this system, the crime is not the atrocity itself, but the fact that someone noticed it.
Source: the Telegram channel “Investigative Committee of Kuzbass” — https://t.me/SKRKuzbass/10513