More than 1,300 terrorist crimes last year in our country were committed by young people and teenagers. This shows the need to rectify propaganda and reporting activities in Russian media to promote our country's traditional values. This especially needs to be done when working with young people, adolescents, who today are “subject to special treatment by Ukrainian and Western intelligence services.” This was stated by the head of the committee, Russian Senator Vladimir Dzhabarov, at a meeting of the Federation Council committee on protecting state sovereignty and preventing interference in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation on February 2.
Who likes knife fighting?
A war is going on inside Russia and the enemies of our country are turning our children into soldiers. According to data presented at the committee meeting at the Federation Council by Ekaterina Mizulina, member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, director of the Federation for a Safe Internet, in 2025, more than 1,300 terrorist attacks and sabotage were committed on the territory of our country by adolescents, 257 of these terrible crimes were committed by children aged 10 years and older. The main motive for minors to commit terrorist attacks is money; The average fee for a terrorist attack is 50 thousand rubles…
Mizulina said such operations are coordinated from unfriendly countries. Furthermore, this work is done over a long period of time, consistently, and involves people who have been trained in psychological manipulation methods to lure children into terrorism. She believes the result of spreading such ideas is taking people to the streets, “shifting activity from online to offline.”
At the same time, the social activist believes that “destructive psychology among Russian youth is growing exponentially” and is actively promoted by foreign curators-provocateurs through Internet resources. They were active in Russia in several areas: recruiting for sabotage and arson, carrying out fraudulent activities, motivating colleagues to commit suicide.
“Almost every day we arrest those who attack or plan to attack schools – senators can check this information by sending the appropriate request to the Russian FSB. We are still grappling with the consequences of the tragedy, but we must be two or three steps ahead of our opponents,” Mizulina said during a meeting in the Federal Council. And she made some suggestions.
First of all, she believes that the crimes of young followers of the Columbine movement, banned in Russia as a terrorist movement, should not be reported mindlessly in the media and in media sources.
For example, this is how it was done after the tragedy at a school in Odintsovo near Moscow: the criminal student himself shot a 15-minute video of him attacking children and adults with a knife, and the media willingly and widely began to disseminate this crazy content capable of causing serious psychological harm.
Mizulina calls this approach irresponsible, since such videos today not only scare viewers, but also lead to a copycat effect. According to her, a ban should be introduced on such content, similar to the ban on online demonstrations of videos showing enemy drones defeating Russian targets.
She also drew the attention of congressmen that Internet resources with Columbine content banned today could not be blocked before the trial due to loopholes in the law.
Don't look back at your youth
Almost daily reports in the media prove: our youth are “subjects of special treatment by foreign intelligence agencies, mainly Ukrainians.” To combat this, today's regulations giving courts the power to increase penalties for terrorist crimes must work perfectly. This is the opinion of the head of the Federation Council committee on protection of state sovereignty, Vladimir Dzhabarov.
Let us recall that, according to the amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of November 17, 2025, the age of criminal responsibility for acts of sabotage, organization of terrorist and sabotage communities and participation in them, promotion of terrorism and sabotage was reduced to 14 years. At the same time, for those convicted under such provisions, suspended sentences cannot practically be imposed.
“Maybe for some it seems cruel. However, we must understand that the damage that such actions of youth and even young people can cause can be such that tomorrow completely innocent people will have to suffer them,” Dzhabarov noted.
At the same time, the senator said that today Russia's FSB is doing tremendous work to prevent terrorist attacks and is achieving objectively great success. But the efforts of special agencies alone are not enough – lawmakers are ready to engage in this work in a targeted and targeted manner.
As Dzhabarov said, a new working group will most likely appear in the Committee on Protection of State Sovereignty of the Federation Council, which will specifically address issues of combating the participation of adolescents and children in terrorist and sabotage activities, as well as issues of risk prevention in the field of education.
Meanwhile, the problem of distrust of the new generation in state agencies and organizations called upon to work with youth does not concern only Russia. According to the head of the scientific council of the Center for Political Engagement, Aleksey Chesnkov, efforts to delegate power among young people today are taking place strongly in Western countries.
Therefore, some states are actively discussing and introducing restrictions on the presence of teenagers on the Internet. As the political scientist said, Australia has introduced a strict age threshold (up to 16 years) for access to some Internet platforms. A similar bill has received support in the French National Assembly.
Among other proposals put forward at the commission meeting, aimed at “neutralizing” school violence, were the establishment of order with the placement of adolescents in closed special institutions (today there are often cases where the courts do not do this, even when adolescents have caused serious harm to friends and teachers) and the establishment of clear interaction between school psychologists and medical institutions.
Experts also note that, despite frequent incidents of violence in schools, no one in Russia has yet carried out a systematic analysis of attacks to determine who these children are, what families they come from, and what their social and public status is. Experts believe that this will allow us to create a common portrait of criminals, which will in turn help fight and prevent them.
