Mikhail Balabanov

Originally from Kazan, he left his native place due to mobilisation and was arrested in the Stavropol region in a case of preparation for a terrorist attack. Telegram channel SHOT claims that Balabanov was recruited by a man who introduced himself in correspondence as "Ben" and allegedly works for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. The publication Vot Tak suggests that the man who introduced himself as Ben (the spelling of the nickname varies from source to source) was a provocateur: he began writing messages to Balabanov under the nickname "I want to live" on the same day that he tried to contact the Ukrainian project of the same name, which offers mobilised Russians to surrender. "Ben" promised to help Balabanov leave, but demanded that he gather information in Nevinnomyssk for "some kind of action", as well as photograph a number of objects in the city and buy components for an incendiary mixture. In addition, the interlocutor asked the young man to send him a copy of his passport. It was on the instructions of "Ben" Balabanov came to the military recruitment office on 19 December 2022: he was already waited for there by law enforcers. Vitaly Matvienko, a representative of the Ukrainian project "I Want to Live", told the journalists of "Vot Tak" that no one from the project has ever contacted Balabanov and they have never had such situations. The defense suggests that the correspondence with "Ben" was forged: according to Balabanov himself, some messages from the correspondence are missing from the case materials, and other dialogues present in the case, on the contrary, it was not in it. For example, Mikhail is charged with authorship of messages about hatred of "Russians" and the capture of Moscow, as well as statements that the young man himself planned to offer the provocateur to set fire to the military recruitment centre. At the same time, the dialogues where "Ben" arranged the transfer of money to Mikhail to pay for the rent of temporary housing in Nevinnomyssk disappeared from the correspondence. Balabanov's lawyer reported that his phone was most likely hacked by law enforcers when he came to the FSB to represent the interests of his client. On 22 May 2024 Balabanov was sentenced to four and a half years in a strict regime colony. On the night of 5 to 6 June, the young man was taken from Rostov SIZO-1 in an unknown direction, despite the fact that the sentence had not yet entered into legal force. On 10 June it became known that Balabanov was in pre-trial detention centre-3 in Novocherkassk.