The BBC Russian Service told the story of Ilya Baburin, who is suspected of attempting to set fire to a military registration and enlistment office. First they opened a case against him for organizing a terrorist attack, and later also for treason.

The BBC Russian Service told details about 23-year-old Novosibirsk Ilya Baburin, who was first accused of trying to set fire to the military registration and enlistment office, and then brought against him for attempted treason.

Ilya Baburin lives in Novosibirsk and works in the IT field. In recent years, he traveled a lot: in the late 2010s, the young man lived in Asia for several years, and when he returned to Russia, he traveled around the Caucasus.

Baburin was engaged in crossfit and athletics. He has a wife who lives in Ukraine. The couple broke up a year and a half ago, but they did not legally file a divorce. The last time Baburin traveled to Ukraine was in the fall of 2021.

Friends of the accused told the BBC Russian Service that he was against the war, but did not publicly express his attitude towards it. At the same time, Baburin's mother notes that in a conversation with her last summer, her son expressed his readiness to go to fight on the side of Russia. “Mom, if necessary, I will go to fight for my homeland, to defend it. Where to go, ”Tatyana recalls the words of her son.

The FSB officers detained the young man on September 22, 2022. On the same day, the apartment where he lives with his parents was searched. Baburin seized the book of the American war correspondent William Shearer "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." The police decided that this was how they confirmed Baburin's sympathies for "Nazism and the Ukrainian formation" Azov "," Vasily Dubkov, the young man's lawyer, told the BBC.

In addition to the book, the security forces also seized a canister "with some kind of liquid" that was in my father's garage. Baburin's mother was not at home then, she learned about what was happening from a neighbor who called her. Whether the father was in the apartment is not reported.

The next day, September 23, Ilya Baburin was arrested on charges of attempted terrorist attack. According to investigators, on the instructions of the Azov regiment, he planned to set fire to military enlistment offices in Novosibirsk. For the sake of this, the young man allegedly found two performers - Orlov and Shorin - to whom he handed over a bottle with a Molotov cocktail.

However, Orlov and Shorin did not go to set fire to the military enlistment office, the investigators noted, but appeared at the FSB department, where they handed over a bottle of flammable liquid to the security forces and testified against Ilya Baburin.

In October, the case was reclassified as an article on organizing a terrorist act (Part 4 of Article 205.1 of the Criminal Code). According to the investigation, although not a single military enlistment office in Novosibirsk was set on fire, Ilya Baburin fulfilled his organizational functions.

At the end of 2022, another criminal case was opened against the young man - about assisting terrorism (part 1.1 of article 205.1 of the Criminal Code). The reason was that Baburin allegedly persuaded Orlov and Shorin to set fire to the draft board. The defendant's lawyer notes that Orlov and Shorin were never detained and no criminal proceedings were initiated against them. However, Baburin was never charged with assisting terrorism.

Instead, in March 2023, another criminal case was opened against the young man - about attempted treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code with the application of Part 3 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code). At the same time, there were no new episodes in the case. According to the investigation, Ilya Baburin, by organizing the arson of the military registration and enlistment offices, was going to "assist the Ukrainian formation" Azov "in carrying out activities directed against the security of Russia." The young man has not yet been charged with this, Baburin is a suspect in the case.

In the winter of last year, before the lawyer Vasily Dubkov entered the case, Ilya Baburin concluded a pre-trial agreement on cooperation with the investigation and testified. At the same time, during the last interrogations, he refused to say anything and referred to the 51st article of the Constitution, the lawyer told the BBC.

According to Dubkov, his client does not plead guilty in cases of terrorism and does not agree with such a qualification. “I am convinced that Ilya is really not guilty of what he is accused of. At the very least, qualification as a terrorist attack or treason is a misclassification of his actions,” he said.

Ilya Baburin categorically denies any connection with Azov. “Where the investigators got this from is unclear. Even in the testimony that Ilya gave earlier, he did not say that he acted on the instructions of Azov,” the lawyer said.

Vasily Dubkov suggests that investigators could open a criminal case on attempted treason in order to put pressure on Baburin.

The young man has been in jail for six months. Until January 2023, he had no complaints about the conditions of his detention, but then “strange actions” began to be committed against him, writes the BBC.

“In December, he [Baburin] gave detailed testimony, the investigator was not satisfied with them, and he insisted that Ilya continue to provide information,” the lawyer said.

In January, a young man was placed without any reason in a “psychiatric isolation cell,” a special cell with rubber walls, which is usually placed in prisoners prone to self-harm. Before that, Baburin was completely undressed and he was there naked under the supervision of a video camera. From there, Baburin was not allowed to go to the toilet. In protest, the young man broke the camera. After that, he was transferred to another room of unknown purpose, where he spent two days without clothes. Then he was returned to a regular cell.

Over the past three months, Baburin has been sent to a punishment cell three times for far-fetched reasons, his lawyer said.

Source: BBC Russian Service

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