The youngest of them is 16 years old today. Following the Russian prisoner exchange, the OVD organisation currently counts 2747 politically motivated criminal proceedings, including 1015 against opponents of the war, 131 of which were against children and young people.

15-year-old Arsenij Turbin from Liwny was recently sentenced to 5 years in prison for distributing anti-war leaflets. Today he has to celebrate his 16th birthday behind prison walls. The IGFM, which is supporting the family in Arsenij’s case, was able to send a birthday letter for today.

The mother of Daniel Efimov from Rostov-on-Don, who is now 19 years old and a prisoner of war, and who had donated some money to Ukrainian aid organisations and has to serve a draconian 12-year prison sentence for this, describes her son as ‘as soft as butter’. This seems to be what all these young war opponents have in common. They are mostly remarkably intelligent pupils and students and very sensitive young people. And another thing they have in common is that they are as soft as butter, but with a firm backbone. If necessary, they are prepared to go to prison for their firm conviction that this war is an inconceivable crime against human rights. To the Russian prison, where the conditions could hardly be worse.

We would like to introduce 10 of these brave 131 young people from all over Russia.

Arseniy Turbin, Livny, 15 years old, 5 years imprisonment, distribution of leaflets

High school student Arseniy Turbin (IGFM reports) from the Russian town of Livny (a good 100 km from Kursk), who has been under state house arrest since the age of 15 and was sentenced to 5 years in prison two months ago on 20 June, must now celebrate his 16th birthday behind bars. This makes him the youngest state criminal behind Putin’s prison walls. What was his offence? Arseniy had distributed flyers in Livny with the headline: ‘Do you want a president like this?’

Egor Balasejkin, St. Petersburg, 18 years, 6 years in prison, attempt to cause fire damage to a conscription building

Egor Balasejkin from near St. Petersburg had to spend his 18th birthday on 4 August behind bars. The excellent student, who came from a pro-Putin family, had tried to damage a conscription building with a homemade Molotov cocktail, but it did not start a fire. He was sentenced to 6 years in prison for this in November of last year. In an interview, his mother recounts what Egor said: ‘If I hadn’t done that, I would probably have hanged myself, because I can’t walk with this heaviness in my soul when I see how many people are dying.’

Lyubov Lizunova, 17, Alex Snezhkov, 19, Chita, 3.5 years and 6 years for graffiti

17-year-old Lyubov Lizunova and her 19-year-old boyfriend Alex Snezhkov sprayed anti-war graffiti in their town of Chita, almost 5000 kilometres from Moscow. She received a 3.5-year prison sentence and he 6 years.

Maksim Lipkam, Moscow, 19 years old, in forced psychiatric hospitalisation; sentence pending, participation in and organisation of demonstrations against the war

The Moscow anti-war activist of the first hour, Maksim Lipkan, also had to spend his 19th birthday in February this year behind the bars of a prison psychiatric ward. He was arrested shortly after his 18th birthday after he said in an interview with Radio Liberty: ‘I found out about the war at 5 a.m. on 24 February. I was awake, I saw the news about the war and I thought what a war criminal Putin was…’

Vladislav Sosedko, Moscow, 18 years old, online application for RDK, judgement pending

Vladislav Sosedko was also arrested in Moscow shortly after his 18th birthday and charged with preparing a ‘coup d’état’. As a minor, he had previously expressed an apparent interest in joining the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDC) and the Russian Freedom Legion on the internet. It is not known in which detention centre the boy is currently being held.

Daniel Efimov, Rostov-on-Don, 19 years old, 12 years in prison, donations to Ukrainian charities worth 130 euros

Ukrainian-born Daniel Efimov from Rostov-on-Don was detained at Volgograd airport in December 2023. He had started studying psychology in Volgograd. Transfers to Ukrainian charities totalling the equivalent of 130 euros had been discovered on his mobile phone. In February 2024, the boy was remanded in custody in Rostov, where he was housed in the basement with 16 other Ukrainians in a 10-bed cell and allowed to wash himself once a month. This is where he celebrated his 19th birthday. A month ago, he received his sentence: 12 years in prison. Most of them are residents of the occupied territories. His brother reports about him in an interview: ‘He is surprisingly happier than all of us. He says that, on the contrary, he is satisfied with this lesson, that he has found God in the process. He has finally understood what he needs in life…’

Daria Kosyrewa, St. Petersburg, 19 years old, forced psychiatry, judgement pending, artistic-philosophical anti-war actions

Daria Kozyreva, probably the best-known of Russia’s young political prisoners, the St. Petersburg medical student was politically persecuted at the age of 17. On 7 October, she will spend her 19th birthday behind prison walls in a psychiatric ward, where she was committed in July last month, according to media reports. She had pinned a poem to a Ukrainian monument and realised anti-war ideas several times in artistic and philosophical form. She was imprisoned in February 2024 for these ‘repeat offences’

Valeria Sotova, Yaroslavl, 21 years old, 6 years in prison, verbal -unrealised- promise of an arson attack on a military administration building

Valeria Sotova recently spent her second birthday behind prison walls in Kostroma. On 28 June 2023, she was sentenced to 6 years in prison for ‘preparing a terrorist act’. Apparently, as an active opponent of the war, she had fallen into a trap set by the secret service. She turned 21 on 4 September. On her 20th birthday, her mother went round the prison with a megaphone and tried in vain to sing her daughter a birthday song. Valeria reports difficult prison conditions; a cellmate hanged herself in solitary confinement last year.

Yuri Mikheyev, Lobna, 18 years old, judgement pending, was on military territory

Yuri Mikheyev has now been in pre-trial detention in Moscow for almost a year since he was arrested on a military compound at the beginning of November last year and charged on suspicion of planning an act of sabotage.