July 10, 2026

Teenagers Tortured behind Bars


Teenagers Tortured behind Bars
Jail cell. The Russian Life files.

On July 3, 12 members of the Neo-Nazi organization Paragraf 88 were sentenced to 20 years in prison for attacks on LGBT people and migrants, as well as plotting to kill the head of state news outlet Russia Today, Margarita Simonian. The majority of those convicted were minors at the time of their arrest and faced severe torture.

On July 15, 2023, the FSB revealed it had arrested the teenagers because they were plotting to kill Simonian and TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak "by orders of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)." At the time, eight people were arrested, the majority of whom were teenagers who were later placed in pre-trial detention centers.

An eyewitness who saw the teenagers in the detention center told independent outlet Mediazona that they were tortured. According to the newspaper's source, Mikhail Balashov, one of the detainees confessed because "he was hit with such brutality that he no longer had another option." After the torture, the eyewitness said the detainee was shaking intensely: "[he] couldn't put two words together, [he] couldn't squeeze a hand."

A witness told Mediazona that another detainee, Yegor Savelev, was tortured with an electric gun. The source said that they overheard an agent say he could "smell fried beef" and that they had electrocuted Savalev's testicles. Another witness described the state of one of the detainees to Mediazona: "I saw him like this: vacant gaze, his face is all fucking stuffed."

In September 2023, only Balashov and Savalev were charged with conspiracy to kill Simonyan and the unlawful possession of weapons. According to investigators, the detainees surveilled the journalist's Moscow address for many days. Authorities alleged that "unidentified individuals" fighting against the Russian invasion of Ukraine promised Balashov and Savalev $50,000 for her murder. The detainees were also accused of using another minor to lure migrant men via Telegram into the forest and attack them.

The trial had to be conducted behind closed doors due to possible "provocations from a terrorist organization." The 12 members of the organization were forbidden from accessing websites and internet channels for at least two years.

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