Riad Safarov

A student of the Russian State University of Justice College in Moscow. He was detained in January 2025. The reason was a statement made by an acquaintance who studied at the same college. She, as reported by TASS with reference to the investigation, claimed that Safarov wore T-shirts with the inscriptions “Hate” and “Natural Selection”, was “interested in the fates” of Ilnaz Galiaviev, who carried out an attack on a gymnasium in Kazan, and Timur Bekmansurov, who opened fire at a university in Perm, and also “showed interest” in the “Columbine movement”.

During the search, law enforcement officers seized from the student a collection of knives, a pump-action shotgun, two airsoft grenades, a pepper spray canister, a bat, a rubber truncheon, an axe and an ammunition belt, as well as literature on weapons and the tactics of conducting armed combat. The investigation considered that he was preparing to attack his fellow students. The defence lawyers stated that Safarov had a conflict with “the initiator of the criminal case” and that the grenades and shotgun found in his possession could not be converted into combat weapons. On 2 October 2025 Safarov was sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment in a general regime penal colony.