VIRTUAL CRIME
Russian boy sent to prison for plot to blow up spy building on 'Minecraft'By UPI Staff
The Federal Security Service building is seen in Moscow, Russia. Prosecutors said that a 16-year-old boy who was sent to jail on Thursday plotted terrorist activities with two others -- including blowing up a different FSB office they'd built in the game "Minecraft."
File Photo by Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA
Feb. 10 (UPI) -- A Russian teenager was sent to prison on Thursday for supposedly "training" for terrorist activities and other charges that included blowing up a virtual government intelligence building on the video game Minecraft.
A military court in Siberia sentenced the boy, 16-year-old Nikita Uvarov, to five years for the charges -- which stemmed from anti-government leaflets he'd handed out and videos on cellphones belonging to Uvarov and at least two others.
Authorities also said they'd uncovered a plot by the teens to blow up a virtual building belonging to the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, that they'd built in the block-building game Minecraft.
The FSB is the top intelligence and security service in Russia and the successor to the Soviet-era KGB.
The two other teenagers were given suspended sentences on Thursday because they cooperated with prosecutors in the case against Uvarov.
The case against Uvarov follows a number of other controversial anti-terrorist prosecutions in Russia. In 2020, several young activists were jailed for supposedly planning a coup and other terror-related charges. Some of them claimed that Russian authorities effectively beat confessions out of them -- a claim similar to what Uvarov said in court on Thursday.
"I am not a terrorist, I am not guilty," he said, according to The Moscow Times. "I would just like to finish my studies, get an education and go somewhere far away from here, somewhere I don't irritate anyone from the special services."
Uvarov also told the court that he never planned to blow anything up.
Feb. 10 (UPI) -- A Russian teenager was sent to prison on Thursday for supposedly "training" for terrorist activities and other charges that included blowing up a virtual government intelligence building on the video game Minecraft.
A military court in Siberia sentenced the boy, 16-year-old Nikita Uvarov, to five years for the charges -- which stemmed from anti-government leaflets he'd handed out and videos on cellphones belonging to Uvarov and at least two others.
Authorities also said they'd uncovered a plot by the teens to blow up a virtual building belonging to the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, that they'd built in the block-building game Minecraft.
The FSB is the top intelligence and security service in Russia and the successor to the Soviet-era KGB.
The two other teenagers were given suspended sentences on Thursday because they cooperated with prosecutors in the case against Uvarov.
The case against Uvarov follows a number of other controversial anti-terrorist prosecutions in Russia. In 2020, several young activists were jailed for supposedly planning a coup and other terror-related charges. Some of them claimed that Russian authorities effectively beat confessions out of them -- a claim similar to what Uvarov said in court on Thursday.
"I am not a terrorist, I am not guilty," he said, according to The Moscow Times. "I would just like to finish my studies, get an education and go somewhere far away from here, somewhere I don't irritate anyone from the special services."
Uvarov also told the court that he never planned to blow anything up.
No comments:
Post a Comment