Teenage political activist arrested by FSB, investigated for alleged ‘railway sabotage’

FSB operatives have arrested a 19-year-old political activist in the Karelian town of Sortavala, not far from the Finnish border. 

Nikita Klyunya, vice-president of the National Council within the grassroots Civil Alliance of Russia, is now in custody in Petrozavodsk. The FSB is building a “railway sabotage” case against him.

The preliminary charges against Klyunya include “organizing a terrorist association and participating in it,” a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison under the Russian law.

According to the Civil Alliance leader Oleg Filatchev, the FSB’s accusations against Klyunya can only be absurd. Filatchev describes him as someone who is “responsible, well-mannered, and a Protestant parishioner.” Klyunya’s character is completely incompatible with “sabotage,” Filatchev wrote, on the organization’s website.

Civil Alliance of Russia describes itself as a youth movement for those who care about “our country’s current situation.” “We are moved by what matters most: a desire to do what’s best for Russia, which we want to see as a forward European state based in civil rights,” says the Alliance in its statement of purpose.