‘Mom, I’m probably going to die soon’: Russian teenager in prison for anti-Putin flyers says cellmate brutally beat him
Arseny Turbin, a Russian 16-year-old sentenced to five years in a juvenile detention facility on terrorism charges, told his mother in a recent letter that he’s suffered physical and psychological abuse in detention. Turbin’s supporters, who published an excerpt from the letter on Telegram, suspect that in addition to assaulting him, Turbin’s cellmates may be stealing his food. Here’s what we know.
Arseny Turbin was sentenced to five years in a juvenile prison in June 2024, when he was still 15 years old. Russian state investigators allege that he joined the Freedom of Russia Legion, a pro-Ukraine unit made up of Russian nationals, in the summer of 2023 and began distributing leaflets criticizing Vladimir Putin on the group’s orders soon thereafter. Turbin maintains that he never joined the legion and that he disseminated the flyers of his own accord. The Russian human rights group Memorial has declared Turbin a political prisoner.
At the moment, Turbin is in pre-trial detention pending an appeal of his conviction. In an excerpt from a letter he sent to his mother that was published by the group Freedom to Arseny on Monday, the teenager described how a cellmate named Azizbek attacked him multiple times. “This evening after 6:00 p.m., one of my cellmates punched me in the head twice while I was in bed,” he wrote. “The situation is really hard, it’s critical. Azizbek punched me and said he was going to fuck me up tonight. The night is going to be very hard. But I’ll hold on.”
Turbin also said that the remand prison has designated him as “prone to terrorism” due to the offense for which he was convicted (“participating in a terrorist organization”).
In their Telegram post, Turbin’s supporters speculated that his cellmates might also be stealing his food, citing the fact that he usually asks his mother for food packages in his letters but that this time he told her he doesn’t need any.
Turbin’s mother, Irina Turbina, told Mediazona on Tuesday that her son was placed in solitary confinement from September 23–30. Prison administrators told her this followed a “conflict” between Turbin and his cellmates, and that all four of them were isolated as punishment. Turbina also said that prison staff hadn’t let her speak to Arseny over the phone and that the last time they talked was in early September.
Turbina recounted her last meeting with her son to the outlet Ponyatno.Media:
When I went to see him on September 11, I didn’t recognize my child at all. Sure, he wasn’t exactly cheerful the previous times I visited, but he at least had hope, he was optimistic; he was awaiting his appeal, and he believed there would be some positive changes. But on September 11, the child had tears in his eyes. He said to me, “Mom, please do everything you can — get me out of here. I’m doing really, really badly here.”
Turbina also quoted her son as saying, “Mom, I’m probably going to die soon.” She said she sent his letter to Eva Merkacheva, a member of Russia’s Presidential Council for Human Rights, and asked her to intervene in the situation.
According to Mediazona, Arseny was finally allowed to speak to his mother by phone on October 8. He reportedly told her that his attacker had been transferred to a different cell the day before and that he was getting along fine with his other cellmates.