“I feel bad now, but I’m holding on”

Nikita Uvarov writes from the Krasnoyarsk pre-trial detention center - the first letter after the initiation of a new case

A month before his release, a new criminal case was opened against Nikita Uvarov, the main defendant in the case of the Kan teenagers, for participation in the activities of an extremist organization (AUE*). Pro-government media came out with details: they published footage from IK-31, where Nikita was serving his sentence, and gave the story of another prisoner sitting with his back to the video camera. He says that Uvarov, who went to prison at the age of 14 (he is now twenty, served four years and 11 months), during all this time, it turns out, “not only did not reform, he began to have a worse attitude towards the authorities and everything else, he became embittered at everyone.”

A comrade with his back to the lens talks about Uvarov’s love for Stepan Bandera and the UPA * (the organization is recognized as Nazi, extremist and banned in Russia), about how he again proposes to put up propaganda leaflets, etc.

All this, of course, is outrageous, but what does AUE have to do with the propaganda of whose ideas, in which Uvarov is suspected of participating?

Now the “truth” about Uvarov’s new case is being brought to the masses by REN-TV and Izvestia (the report was prepared as planned and in advance). RT and Gazeta.ru actively participated in Nikita’s first case. In February 2022, after the conviction in the case of the Kan teenagers, they clearly came out in support of it (not the teenagers, but the verdict - over the course of several more days they released even more accusatory materials). It was already possible to become fully familiar with the verdict, but official media (for example, RIA Novosti) referred not to documents, but to anonymous sources. And they allegedly claimed that the teenagers were preparing a real terrorist attack and wanted to blow up the “FSB building” in Kansk. Despite the fact that there is no FSB building in Kansk, the Kansk branch of the regional FSB Directorate is located (along with, for example, the Lilia salon) in a multi-entrance residential building.

RT, under the guise of an exclusive, gave a monologue that was leaked to local media a year before. There are also shots from behind - only not of a prisoner, but of a teenager telling horror stories.

But if showing this video before the trial had at least some reason, then why was it done after the trial, where exactly this boy and his mother, probably at least 120 times, renounced those words of theirs and told under what pressure this video was recorded on them?

I don’t want to say that the mere involvement of certain media workers in the case already served as an argument in favor of the children’s innocence, but feeding the public canned food...

Of course, the Investigative Committee understands the difference between Bandera and AUE. But so far there is little official information - news from the Krasnoyarsk investigative committee with a short video. Below it for this hour is the following set of reader reactions: 10 emoji - streaming tears, bawling faces, nine faces red with anger, four likes, one applause. In the comments there is the only message from Rimma Lavrentyeva: “People are needed for light work tomorrow, payment 8 thousand.”

...Meanwhile, the first news was received from Nikita from pre-trial detention center-1, where he was transported.

We publish with the permission of Nikolai Shcherbakov, psychologist, correspondence (reviewed and approved by the FSIN censors).

“Hello, Nikita, dear!

Sorry for not writing: I always remember about you, and I started more than once, but all the time something prevented me from bringing this matter to the end (victorious). And now there is a good reason...

I was thinking just the other day, almost yesterday: will everything really be resolved so happily for you that in a month you will already see your family and friends? Does this really still happen, I thought.

But, as we see, they are still afraid of you, like Gulliver’s Lilliputians, and this is the result.

I'm sure you understand everything, Nikita. And I don’t know how I can help you (if you know, write). I always knew that you were a real person, and I continue to believe that you will endure this. All strength to you, health and inner support. Always know that a huge number of people worry about you and support you. And of course, real fiction is all for you: Pushkin, Shchedrin, Iskander, Petrushevskaya, etc.

So hold on, Nikita (do you remember what your name means?), and know that we are always with you.

Your Nikolai

PS I am sending you a relatively recent verse from [the poet...]:

***

*Like a withered leaf falls on the soul

and passes through everything without interference,

without touching anything, without destroying

its transparent structures, look at those

standing in the bowels of a gray carriage

and drinking white light through the bars.

Look at them lightly and detachedly,

wave your hand and smile after them.*

*They have a long drive to the edge of the panorama,

wolves, snows that stubbornly refuse to melt,

and there are all the moments to remember,

when their someone's brothers, children, mothers

asked to be human, looked straight,

humbly called “Your Honor.”*

“Hello, Nikolai!

As always, glad to receive your letter. This is one of the very first letters I received here.

I always remember you too. How many times have I imagined the moment when we could get together in a normal environment and communicate normally. I was really looking forward to this moment, I thought that it would come soon and you would be one of the first whom I would so like to see immediately after entering the normal world.

Thank you for always being with us, always ready to support.

Now I worry more not about myself, but about my mother and other relatives. It hurts to imagine what they feel in their souls now. So I’m not asking you for anything now, just to provide them with moral support, although I understand that you are already doing this.

I feel bad now, but I'm holding on.

I hope everything is more or less okay for you now.

With best wishes, your Nikita, 02/20/2026.”

The day before, Anna Uvarova and her sister Tatyana arrived in Krasnoyarsk, wrote an application for the transfer, and they accepted it. They brought 30 kilos, they allowed 20. This is for everything: food (Nikita is a vegetarian), socks, underpants, a spoon and plate, hygiene products. I kept the sisters company - of course, I was more in the way, but I helped drag the checkered bag. They follow the rules strictly. Several times a woman in the uniform of a senior warrant officer came out to Anna (all other employees were in civilian clothes) and helped her to reject the products: not 72 hours of shelf life after opening, as in the colony, but only 24, canned meat and condensed milk are not allowed (there are none), powdered milk - only with a label so that the expiration date is visible. No, the vegetable oil must be poured from glass - well, this is already clear, so we prepared plastic. Bananas are okay, grapes are not. Etc.

Nearby, the entrance gate constantly opens and closes, heavy vehicles mostly drive in. I think only one left.

Having accepted the transmission, the girl in the window answers all questions. In particular, he reports that you now need to ask for permission to visit from investigator Anastasia Velichko (Sovetsky district of Krasnoyarsk).

In the colony on the 19th, a mother and her son were having a date. It is unknown when it will be allowed now.

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.

* Recognized as an extremist organization and banned in the Russian Federation.