Mikhail Balabanov

Originally from Kazan, he left his hometown fleeing the military mobilisation and was arrested in the Stavropol region, being accused of preparation for a terrorist attack. Telegram channel SHOT claims that Balabanov was recruited by a man who introduced himself in online-correspondence as "Ben" and allegedly works for the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. The media resource "Vot Tak" suggests that the man who introduced himself as Ben (the spelling of the nickname varies from source to source) was a provocateur: he began writing messages to Balabanov under the nickname "I Want to Live" on the same day that he tried to contact the Ukrainian project of the same name, which offers mobilised Russians to surrender and become war prisoners. "Ben" promised to help Balabanov escape the mobilisation, but demanded that he gather information in Nevinnomyssk in preparation of "some kind of act", as well as to photograph a number of objects in the city and buy components for an incendiary mixture. In addition, the interlocutor asked the man to send him a copy of his passport. It was on the instructions of "Ben" Balabanov arrived at the military recruiting office on 19 December 2022: the law enforcement officers were already waiting for him there. Vitaly Matvienko, a representative of the Ukrainian project "I Want to Live", informed the journalists of "Vot Tak" that no one from the project has ever contacted Balabanov and they have never experienced such situations. The defense suggests that the correspondence with "Ben" was forged: according to Balabanov himself, some messages from the correspondence are missing from the case materials, and, on the contrary, other exchanges cited in the case in fact never took place. For example, Mikhail is charged with authorship of messages about hatred of "Russians" and the military siege of Moscow, as well as statements that the young man himself planned to offer the provocateur to set fire to the military recruiting centre. At the same time, the dialogues where "Ben" arranged the transfer of money to Mikhail to pay for the rent of temporary housing in Nevinnomyssk have disappeared from the correspondence. Balabanov's defence lawyer reported that his phone was most likely attempted to be hacked into by law enforcers when he visited the Federal Security Service office to represent the interests of the defendant. On 22 May 2024, Balabanov was sentenced to four and a half years in a high security prison. On the night of 5 to 6 June, the young man was taken from Rostov's pre-trial detention centre in an unknown direction, despite the fact that the sentence had not yet came into legal force. On 10 June it became known that Balabanov was transferred to a pre-trial detention centre #3 in Novocherkassk.