Kuzbass Teenager Faces Terrorism and Treason Charges for Train Arson

A 17-year-old from Kuzbass will appear in court for attempting to burn a train. As reported on Tuesday, January 27, by the transport prosecutor«s office, the young man committed the serious crime for a small payment.

The crime occurred in May 2025. As the defendant himself recounts, he began looking for part-time work as a «sportik» on social media — a term for young men willing to physically punish errant drug couriers or commit other acts of sabotage for money.

An anonymous contact online offered him to set fire to a locomotive on the railway.

«I agreed without thinking, they sent me instructions on what to do. Today was my first foray, and it failed,» says the detainee in an operational video.

After that, the youth went to the Prokopyevsk station of the West Siberian Railway to an electric locomotive using the coordinates he received. However, police noticed the suspicious behavior of a lone person on the tracks and stopped him. Law enforcement officers confiscated a bottle of flammable liquid from the boy«s backpack.

During the investigation, it became known that the order was received from abroad. Now he is charged with attempted terrorist act and state treason. The sanctions for both articles provide for a sentence up to life imprisonment, although minors in Russia are not given maximum sentences. The case will be heard by a district military court.