“All the best goes to children”

How a schoolboy was given five years in prison

“All the best goes to the children.” In a time before memes, this humble product of Soviet propaganda did not raise any questions. On a par with “World-world”, “We honor old people everywhere”, as well as “We have respect for young people everywhere”. It must be admitted that in comparison with “The people and the party are united”, although it looked sly, it was quite herbivorous. Especially in the last years of the life of the USSR, when Stalinism (like badly soiled pants) was neatly folded into a suitcase and hidden under a bench, and faith in the triumph of the ideas of communism ceased to respond to the population’s request for life “as a human being.”

And now, a quarter of a century later, it all came back. And the suitcase, and the pants, and the party, and even the faith pumped up by propaganda. True, not into communism, but into our special type of Russian patriotism. As the unforgettable Mikhail Zhvanetsky explained its essence, “this is a clear, clear, well-reasoned explanation of why we should live worse than others.”

However, the slogan “All the best goes to children” has returned with some semantic upgrade. Only the question of whose children became the key one. We see this in the example of “incredibly talented young managers” who are also the offspring of the current power elite.

For them, the country has become a storehouse of incredible opportunities. For everyone else, the authorities provided an old, unkind set of values: the cult of the leader, servility as a social elevator, work for twenty thousand rubles, dependence on officials, fear of the security forces and a sham trial as the last argument in favor of the poor. And yes, also hatred of the whole world plus military power as a national idea.
It feels like déjà vu, as if you are watching a remake of an old movie and you can even guess how it will end. But this is not a film, this is real reality: with broken destinies, cut short lives, the periodic triumph of evil, injustice dressed in the form of law and the indifference of a large number of compatriots who, like many years ago, think that this does not concern them.

Meanwhile, the regime has entered the very stage of its degradation when sacrifices are needed by definition. For reporting, to maintain a degree of fear, to justify one’s own unprofessionalism, to instill a sense of helplessness among the broad masses. This means that anyone can become an extremist. And it doesn’t matter for what, under what circumstances and at what age.

Last week, a closed military court in Krasnoyarsk sentenced Nikita Uvarov, a sixteen-year-old schoolboy from the city of Kansk, to 5 years in prison. He was accused of “teaching terrorist activities.” The criminal case was based on the actions of three teenagers in the computer game Minecraft; the children in the game built and wanted to blow up a virtual FSB building. In addition to this, they were accused of manufacturing and storing explosives, providing several bottles of gasoline in the garage and homemade firecrackers as evidence. But they did not provide a single fact of the use of this pyrotechnics in any criminal acts. Because they simply don't exist. What is there?

There are two schoolchildren who made a deal with the investigation and received suspended sentences. There is Nikita Uvarov, who refused to admit guilt and the prosecutor asked for 9 (!) years of imprisonment for him. The judge was embarrassed to give nine and gave five. The boy's lawyer told the media that the main connecting evidence in the case was the testimony of Nikita's two friends, who were scared and did everything the investigators wanted from them. There are also two other (adult) witnesses in the case, whom the defense considers to be provocateurs of the special services. That is, a fairly similar story to the “Network” case, in which there is no crime itself, but there are people convicted of thought crimes. That is, there is no need to prove anything, because it is impossible to prove the presence of thoughts in someone else’s head. Just as it is impossible, by the way, to deprive someone of freedom for something that a person did not do.

“I am not a terrorist,” Nikita Uvarov said in his last word at the trial. – If they give me a real sentence, I will serve it with a clear conscience and dignity. I didn't slander anyone. I am not ashamed in front of people, close and strangers. Let someone believe not me, but the law enforcement agencies, I have nothing to be ashamed of. I didn’t intend to blow up anyone. I want to finish my studies, get an education and go somewhere far from here...”

It is obvious that this boy's life will no longer be full of hope. His prospects in his native country are the Gulag, and the main quality of survival is to endure with all his might. Because he is not Kadyrov, who can be threatened with cutting off his heads with impunity. Because in his native country he does not have the right to fair protection from the methods of the security forces. Because the security forces have their own problems - “stars” on their shoulder straps do not fall from the sky, and teenagers are easy prey.

This story by Nikita Uvarov contains almost everything you need to know about Russia today. About the lack of rights of ordinary people, about the betrayal of friends, about the treachery of “law enforcement officers,” about the madness of the regime, about depressive life in small Siberian cities...
A lively plot for a new dystopian novel. However, Orwell predicted all this long ago.