Translated material
“They got it right”
Nikita Uvarov is now charged with spreading the ideas of AUE*
The Russian state wants to keep Nikita Uvarov in prison for a long time. On February 18, the Krasnoyarsk investigator reported that Uvarov “in February and July 2025, while in a colony in connection with serving a sentence under a court sentence, positioning himself as a participant in a prohibited extremist international social movement, communicated to prisoners the rules of life and behavior aimed at introducing and everyday use in a correctional institution the communication style and “laws” of the criminal world.”
The news is illustrated by a video of a suspect in a prison uniform being led down a corridor, brought into the investigator’s office, and there she reads out a new charge to him. The regional Main Investigative Directorate does not name the suspect; his face is blurred in the video, but Nikita is clearly identified by his figure and voice. In addition, the investigator indicated all the articles of Uvarov’s sentence from 2022 and the place of serving his sentence, where he was first sent - a correctional colony.
Nikita first found himself in prison in the case of Kane anarchist schoolchildren at the age of 14, in June 2020. After 11 months he was released, but not for long - an unexpected respite, then a sentence. In February 2022, the tribunal found Uvarov guilty of teaching terrorism and sentenced him to five years in prison. Uvarov had a month left until the end of his term (March 19). But now his personal February promises to drag on for several more years. Part 2 of Art. presented to Nikita 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (participation in the activities of an extremist organization) implies a term of up to six years.
The day before, Novaya reported on the circumstances surrounding the initiation of a new criminal case against Uvarov. Then it was already clear that we could only talk about AUE*. Such cases, which add significant sentences, are not uncommon in local colonies. Vladimir Vasin, Uvarov’s lawyer, was on the plane without communication when the case was initiated. He’s still on a business trip (and in shock) and can’t comment on anything, but Nikita’s mother Anna told me: “But where is Nikita and where is AUE?! It doesn’t connect at all.” Nikita’s friends and comrades are saying exactly the same thing now: “He’s far from that at all.”
Nevertheless, they connected. The case was opened by the investigative department for the Sovetsky district of Krasnoyarsk of the regional Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee on the basis of materials from the regional FSB Directorate.
Anna: “I just watched this video, I have no words, I can’t say anything. I know this is not true. But I see: they are specific, now, of course, “witnesses” will appear... And I know firsthand how it ends.”
On February 22, 2025, Novaya wrote in detail about the possibility of such a scenario. Then, a year ago, over the course of two months, Nikita was twice placed in a punishment cell, for 10 and 15 days, and twice he went on hunger strike. He demanded books and textbooks - there is no ban on reading in the punishment cell (and both times he got his way). This sudden, from December 2024, tightening of Uvarov’s conditions of detention occurred after a conversation with a psychologist. Nikita, who was transferred from a children's colony to an adult colony (IK-31 of the Krasnoyarsk headquarters of the Federal Penitentiary Service), was asked to speak on the record about what awaits the “youngster” pupils in the adult zone. Perhaps so that they are not afraid. But we had no illusions either.
According to Nikita’s mother Anna, the FSI psychologist did not like Nikita’s opinion about the system and employees.
And in the local colonies, in fact, they are fighting against two ideologies - AUE and radical Islamism. The last thing about Nikita is no way. The rest of the spectrum, political subtleties, mean little here. All zones in the region are red, no AUE. The power of law and administration. And technologically, the mechanism for guarding this order is simple: if you violate the regime, it means you are heading to the “denialist” camp, to the thieves, and they begin to break you. And if you also criticize the system... Surely from the standpoint of AUE, from what else is this possible?
Meanwhile, even the case of the Kan teenagers itself largely arose from their reluctance to fit into the usual Kan landscape, into the criminal subculture. Nikita and his friends covered the walls with their leaflets with this abbreviation - AUE. The reality surrounding the children continued to drive them into the “blue” world, but they resisted. They began to pretend to be someone, Martians among sawmills and mountains of smoldering sawdust, “the spirit breathes where it wants.” They discussed Marxism and anarchism, recipes from the 19th century (because that's where it stands), and read Kropotkin and Leo Tolstoy, Berdyaev and Noam Chomsky.
This was not metropolitan nonconformism with a conscious rejection of bourgeoisism and stability - there was and is no such alternative. And is it really possible to abandon the criminal subculture?
They refused. There are dozens of pages about this specifically in the case materials. And all the way they were told: “Don’t show off, listen to “Valenki.” The state itself spoke. On June 6, 2020, the FSB takes the leaflets posted in the center of Kansk (including on the building where the security officers themselves are sitting) from five teenagers (during the arrest, one wet himself out of fear), opens their phones... Two of the five, they are a little older, are quickly released (among them is the grandson of the former mayor of Kansk), without making any claims, three 14-year-olds remain. The two admit guilt, cooperate with the investigation and sign everything they are told - they will be sent under house arrest a little later. One, Nikita, does not admit guilt, does not testify against his friends and is going to a pre-trial detention center. The authorities assigned him the role of a criminal leader.
“When I was locked in pre-trial detention center-5, V. was already sitting in my first cell,” Nikita told me earlier (before the verdict). “He said that he was imprisoned for the serious injuries he inflicted on his girlfriend’s offender. I think he said he was 17 years old. He told me about his family, about his criminal activities related to thefts, about prison concepts, sometimes he was calm, and sometimes aggressive. He often asked about my criminal case, said that he did not believe that I was innocent and that I had not planned anything. As if he wanted me to admit it to him. Sometimes he threatened me. <...> Then, when I spoke with a boy from the KVK ( Kana educational colony - Ed. ), he said that V. was in prison for bookmarks, and that then, in the summer of 2020, he went to an adult colony. The teachers said the same thing about him. And so I realized that at the time when I was put with him, he was already an adult.
The Federal Law “On the Detention of Suspects and Accused <...>” does not allow such proximity, and any exception to the rule requires the consent of the prosecutor. Why was Nikita thrown into V.’s cell? Pressure? Prison university elementary course? AUE propaganda?
And then there were the following courses. Five-year education.
And yet Nikita remained the same - judging by the words of his relatives who were on dates, judging by all his letters, by all the reviews about him from people who saw him, served time next to him and were released.
When Nikita was transferred to IK-31, the first thing they did was “put to work” - he swept the area and cleaned up. Anyone who has heard about the procedures or is familiar with them in this and neighboring colonies (there are three of them: the 17th, strict regime, and the 27th, special regime) understands the meaning of this significant action. This is a ritual, an initiation. Many former prisoners of these colonies told Novaya about this. And this event always takes place under filming - to fight against the “denialist”, against thieves’ ideas and concepts. If you were forced to perform actions under Art. 106 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation (household work), from the point of view of the black, criminal world, you have been seriously tarnished. In different colonies they “break” the 106th with different tenacity, but here it always happens on a trouble-free conveyor belt. On their first date in IK-31, Nikita told Anna: “You know, there are no thieves here at all, everyone cooperates...” And he himself never gave up studying and working.
From the characterization of Uvarov, submitted by the colony management to the Sovetsky District Court of Krasnoyarsk last month (in the case of establishing administrative supervision after the planned release): “... does not allow refusals to work, keeps the workplace clean, observes the rules of hygiene and sanitation. Participates in work without pay to improve the territory, both according to the work schedule and at his own request, more than two hours a week.”
...Soon after that conversation with the psychologist (although why are psychologists needed if you can’t be frank with them, if they don’t need this frankness?) Nikita went to the punishment cell. As far as we know, it was not only he who went on a hunger strike in the detention center at that time, but also a conscientious objector from the SVO who was there and who had diabetes. He could not stand it for long - he missed one meal, then he was sent to the medical unit. Nikita refused the food brought three times. And they brought books.
He left and again, for 15 days. Due to a violation of the regime: a friend (from the children's colony) was celebrating his birthday and invited Nikita to drink tea. And Nikita was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
And again there was a hunger strike, and again, in the end, books were brought. Textbooks - only on the 10th day.
As the Krasnoyarsk investigative committee now reports, Uvarov was interrogated. He took advantage of Article 51 of the Constitution, which allows him not to testify against himself.
One nuance: at the trial in Kansk, two of Nikita’s friends, who incriminated him then, in the summer of 2020, renounced their initial testimony. The mothers of these children cried and said that they did not understand what they were doing. But it was too late. Now there will be new witnesses, already adults...
You can support Nikita with a letter. The institution where he is currently located is connected to the F-letter service. Send paper letters to:
660075, Krasnoyarsk, st. Respubliki, 72, pre-trial detention center-1, Nikita Andreevich Uvarov, born in 2005.