Moscow’s Presnensky District Court has ordered the pretrial detention of Alexander Stefanovich, a 20-year-old student from Kostroma accused of committing a terrorist act under paragraph “a” of part 2 of Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code. The information follows from the case file on the Moscow City Court website, which reviewed an appeal against his arrest.
The defendant’s mother, Lyudmila Stefanovich, told Mediazona that her son was arrested on February 18. She said the case has not yet been sent to court and that the investigation is still underway.
Two days after the arrest, the television channel NTV aired a report featuring Stefanovich’s interrogation. His mother said the account shown there was generally true, though in her view some minor inaccuracies were possible. Surveillance footage included in the report appeared to show the young man pouring liquid from a canister onto a police vehicle, making a paper wick, setting the car on fire, and filming the blaze on his phone.
During questioning, Stefanovich said he had met a girl online who sent him a link supposedly containing her photos. According to him, after he opened it, the Gosuslugi portal appeared with a message about a “data export,” and then a man identifying himself as a law enforcement officer called and said the data had been sent to Ukraine, exposing him to criminal liability and up to 12 years in prison.
The NTV segment said the student had committed a “series of crimes,” with the attempted destruction of the police car described as the last episode. His mother, however, insists the case contains only one episode. The same report also said he had been used as a courier by phone scammers.
Another young man, aged 17, was detained at the same time and was also mentioned in the television report. According to that account, he transferred money and attempted to set a police car on fire, but backed out at the last moment and went to a police station to confess. His name has not been disclosed. Stefanovich’s mother said her son’s case has been separated into its own proceedings.