In Vladimir, FSB officers detained an Estonian citizen born in 1995. TASS reported this, citing the regional branch of the security service.
According to the agency, a criminal case was opened against the man under the article on an attempt to engage in mercenarism. A court ordered his pretrial detention, and he has been placed in a detention center. The charge, as reported, carries a possible sentence of up to 11 years and 3 months in prison.
Investigators claim that the foreign national planned to travel to the war in Ukraine and, in exchange for payment, take part in combat operations against the Russian army. The FSB says that for this purpose he contacted “Ukrainian handlers” who, according to the security service, were supposed to help him join the Ukrainian armed forces.
The plan was not carried out, the agency says, because the man was detained before leaving.
The FSB also released a video of the detainee’s interrogation. In the footage, the man says he speaks Russian fluently and that, in his words, “Russia as a country” had “done nothing bad” to him.
“But because I spent a lot of time on the internet, read information and often did not grasp its essence or filter it, I developed a sharply negative attitude toward the special military operation,” he said on camera.