A schoolgirl convicted over portraits of RVC members has spoken about threats from law enforcement officers

17-year-old St Petersburg resident Eva Bagrova told the court of appeal that after her detention, law enforcement officers interrogated her without a legal representative present and threatened her and also her father and brother with torture. This was reported by SOTAvision and RusNews.

“They showed me a photograph of a beaten man and hinted that I could end up like him if the investigator didn’t like what I said,” she told the court during the closing arguments.

In October 2025, Bagrova was sentenced to four years in a penal colony on charges of justifying terrorism (Art. 205.2, part 1 of the Criminal Code) and facilitating terrorism (Art. 205.1, part 1 of the Criminal Code).

The first charge was brought against her because of portraits of members of the “Russian Volunteer Corps” that were displayed on a school noticeboard with captions reading “Hero of Russia.”

The substance of the second charge was not disclosed until today’s hearing. In court, it emerged that this charge related to some leaflets. Another teenager admitted to posting the leaflets but could not be prosecuted because of their age. They gave testimony against Bagrova. According to law enforcement, she allegedly “incited [them] to participate in terrorist activities.” In court, the teenager retracted this testimony and spoke of pressure from the investigator.

Bagrova’s defence stated that her fingerprints and biological traces were not found on the leaflets.

Nevertheless, the Appeal Military Court rejected the defence’s appeal against the sentence and left the punishment unchanged.