Valery Zaitsev
Valery Zaitsev, born 2008, Khabarovsk Krai. Charges: Article 205.3, Russian Criminal Code (Receiving training for the commission of terrorist crimes); Article 205.5 part 2, Russian Criminal Code (Participation in the activities of a terrorist organization); “Valery Zaitsev's case on preparing for a terrorist attack and participating in the activities of a terrorist organisation”. Sentence (August 16, 2024): 4 years 6 months' imprisonment in an educational colony. Status: imprisoned; deprived of liberty since October 11, 2023; place of detention: Juvenile colony, Jewish Autonomous Oblast. Recognition: Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners — recognised as a political prisoner, May 6, 2025.
In brief
Khabarovsk Krai · Schoolchildren · Terrorism cases
Sentence
4 years 6 months
imprisonment in an educational colony
No information about an appeal ruling.
Charges
- Article 205.3, Russian Criminal Code — Receiving training for the commission of terrorist crimes
- Article 205.5 part 2, Russian Criminal Code — Participation in the activities of a terrorist organization
Full wording of the charges
The reason for the prosecution was a video posted in the Telegram channel, where teenagers throw Molotov cocktails at the wall of an abandoned building. According to the investigation, Zaytsev "sympathised with the Ukrainian Azov", and specifically "engaged in practical activities and also supported Azov". Valeriy was accused of undergoing training to prepare for a terrorist attack and participating in the activities of a terrorist organisation.
Latest event
May 6, 2025 — recognised as a political prisoner
Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners
Recognition by rights defenders
- Recognised as a political prisoner — Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners, May 6, 2025
Timeline
· Recognised as a political prisoner
Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners
· First-instance verdict
guilty verdict · 4 years 6 months
· Added to the Rosfinmonitoring list of “terrorists and extremists”
· Persecution begins
Valery Zaitsev's case on preparing for a terrorist attack and participating in the activities of a terrorist organisation
· Preventive measure: pre-trial detention
Pre-trial Detention Centre №1 (SIZO-1) of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russian Federation for Khabarovsk Territory
Criminal case
Valery Zaitsev's case on preparing for a terrorist attack and participating in the activities of a terrorist organisation
Thematic group: The case of throwing Molotov cocktails into a wall in Khabarovsk region
Write a letter
Facility: Juvenile colony, Jewish Autonomous Oblast
Address (in Russian, as written on the envelope)
679000, ЕАО, г. Биробиджан, Аремовский пер., 10., ФКУ «Биробиджанская ВК УФСИН России по ЕАО», Зайцев Валерий Андреевич, 2008 г.р.
Details and sources
Full summary
A schoolboy from Solnechny settlement in Khabarovsk Krai. He was detained on October 12, 2023 in the inpatient ward of the children's department of a tuberculosis clinic and sent to custody on charges of training for terrorist activities because of a video showing teenagers throwing Molotov cocktails at the wall of an abandoned building. His classmates noted in the Mediazona piece that Zaytsev has Ukrainian roots and "supported Ukraine even before the start of the Special Military Operation." Later, Mediazona wrote that Zaytsev had been running anti-war groups on social networks before the case was initiated.
Later it became known that Zaitsev was also accused of involvement in the activities of a terrorist organisation: the investigation considered him involved in the activities of the Azov battalion.
Zaitsev's grandmother in a conversation with Mediazona suggested that the video with Molotov cocktails was filmed by a provocateur who acted as a secret witness at the trial. "The provocateurs brought this petrol, showed how to do everything, and Valerka posted it," she told Mediazona.
On August 16, 2024, the young man was sentenced to four and a half years in an educational colony.
All fields of the record
- Citizenship
- Russia
Other people prosecuted under Article 205.3, Russian Criminal Code
Under the same article, not necessarily in the same case.