A Russian teenager joked about the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack. Now her parents face criminal charges.

Over the weekend, a video began circulating on Telegram that showed two Russian teenagers making a tasteless joke about the March 2024 terrorist attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall, in which over 140 people were killed. The clip drew the ire of pro-war bloggers and pro-Kremlin media figures, and state investigators were quick to get involved. Now, the parents of one of the girls are facing criminal charges over their “failure to fulfill parental duties.” Meduza breaks down how a teenagers’ joke grew into a potential prison sentence.

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Terrorists attack Crocus City Hall, a music venue outside of Moscow where a crowd of spectators is gathered for a concert. Multiple men armed with machine guns enter the venue, open fire on the crowd, set fire to the building, and then flee. The attack kills 145 people and injures more than 500 others. The terrorist group ISIS-K quickly claims responsibility for the attack. Within days, Russian investigators charge four Tajik nationalists with carrying it out. Nonetheless, the Russian authorities claim Ukraine is behind the attack and instruct state media to emphasize possible “traces” of Ukrainian involvement.

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A video surfaces on Telegram in which two teenage girls from Russia’s Vladimir region, aged 17 and 18, joke about carrying out a second terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall. “Hi, our beloved followers! […] We’re here at Crocus City Hall. We’re gonna do a terrorist attack. Cool,” they say while walking through the venue’s parking lot.

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The Moscow Investigative Committee reports that law enforcement is searching for the two girls, whom they accuse of “justifying” the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack with the video.

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The Interior Ministry branch in Russia’s Vladimir region posts videos of the girls apologizing for their joke. “The girls explained that the video was made back in October of this year and was originally posted in a private conversation,” the agency’s press service writes. “However, it was later shared on public channels.”

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Police in the Vladimir region charge the mother of the 17-year-old with a misdemeanor for “failing to fulfill her parental duties.”

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Investigators reportedly launch a criminal case against the 17-year-old’s parents. “The parents failed to fulfill their duties in raising the minor, who led an antisocial lifestyle and consuming alcohol and drugs,” the newspaper Izvestia quotes a knowledgable source as saying. The details of the charges, including the sentence the parents could facing, remain unclear.