A student from Cheboksary crossed the border to fight on the side of Ukraine. Then he was returned to Russia at the next exchange

According to the sources of "layout", he was put in jail on charges of terrorism. Colleagues call it the issuance of the "error of the system"

21-year-old Alexei Gerasimov from Cheboksar in January 2024 crossed the border and tried to join one of the volunteer battalions in which the Russians are fighting on the side of Ukraine. However, after several months, during which he was not able to sign a contract, he first ended up in a migration camp, and then among the Russian military who returned home as a result of the exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine. In his homeland he was sent in jail, he was accused of a terrorist article. Gerasimov’s motives are unknown how he crossed the border - it is unclear that most of his loved ones refused to talk with journalists. “Layout” tells what he managed to find out about him.

Alexei Gerasimov studied at the Journalism faculty of the State University named after Ulyanov in Cheboksary. Friends describe him as a “non -focusing and closed person who is fond of the ideas of independent Chuvashia.” At the same time, almost all his relatives and friends refused to talk about him, and in his biography, as the “layout” itself notes, much remains unclear.

In November 2023, Gerasimov began publishing posts on the fake page on the VKontakte dedicated to the national liberation movement in Russia. There, as he writes “Layout”, he posted a video interview with a fighter of the “Siberian battalion” - units of volunteers from Russia fighting on the side of Ukraine. As Gerasimov crossed the border and joined the Siberian Battalion - it is unclear.

The only document that we managed to find a “layout” was the decision of the Ukrainian court to detain and subsequently expel Gerasimov. It follows that he crossed the border of Russia with Ukraine on January 23, 2024 in the Belgorod region. The Chuvash activist, who, as the “layout” writes, met Gerasimov on the basis of the “Russian Volunteer Corps” (another unit of Russian volunteers as part of the Armed Forces) suggests that he did not agree with anyone. “It turns out that he crossed [the border], collided with the inhabitants of the local village, asked what village it was, they [say] - Ukrainian. He said that he came to fight for Ukraine. They called the special services, and they came for him, conducted an audit, a polygraph, all things. They gave good, ”says the activist.

In the Siberian battalion, where Gerasimov was transferred in February, some reacted to his story with suspicion. One of the fighters says that he had doubts, because it is very difficult to cross the border with Russia. “People with serious preparation of many years - this challeng did not succeed, they died while trying to cross the border. And a person with clearly weak health and, apparently, has no preparation - he was like a type, ”says the fighter.

Battalion colleagues recall that Gerasimov did not participate in general training, referring to poor health, and, apparently, did not want to fight. “I went out to eat, take a plate - and went back to sit on the computer. He sat on the computer constantly - and that’s it, ”they say. According to the interlocutors of the “layout”, Gerasimov himself called the time of his refusal to train the terms of conclusion of the contract - he was not signed with him for seven months. He calls the problems with documents for this “layout” battalion “a typical situation”, but notes, according to the fighters, that many volunteers, nevertheless, began training without a contract.

In August 2024, Gerasimov refused to sign a contract, said the interlocutors of the “layout”. According to one of them, this could be due to the big losses that the Siberian battalion suffered during one of the “shares”, after which the “motivation fell sharply” for the fighters, and some of them decided to leave. However, these people, according to the interlocutors of the “layout”, were faced with threats from the command, which promised to put them in a migration prison and issue them to Russia. “In the case of Gerasimov, this threat was brought to life,” writes “layout”.

In the migration camp, Gerasimov, according to his acquaintance, was optimistic - "he wanted to sit down until the end of the war or even go to Europe." He spent nine months there-but at the end of May 2025 he ended up in a group of civilians who returned with prisoners of war to Russia as a result of exchanging with Ukraine. The Chuvash activist, who spoke with a “layout”, believes that this happened as a result of the “system error” within the migration service. One former fighter of the Siberian battalion also speaks about the “administrative mess”, and the other admits that Gerasimov could want an exchange himself. Another former colleague of Gerasimov adds that a few days before the exchange, he cleaned the correspondence in messengers.

According to three sources of “layout”, after the return of Gerasimov to Russia, he was sent to a pre -trial detention center on charges of terrorism (the article is not specified). On June 19, he was included in the list of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring - with an asterisk, meaning an excited case from a terrorist article. Relatives of Gerasimov refused to talk with reporters. The decision on the arrest of Gerasimov’s “Svetest” in the bases of Russian courts did not find.