Russian teenager gets 15 years for donating crypto to pro-Ukraine group: report

• A Russian teenager received 15 years for donating to the Russian Freedom Legion, local media reported.
• Danila Yakovlev from Siberia donated $54 to the organization, a source told Mediazona.
• He was found guilty of treason and financing terrorism, court records show.

A 19-year-old Russian man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for donating to a pro-Ukrainian paramilitary unit, the independent publication Mediazona reported.

Danila Yakovlev, from Biysk, a city in the border region of Altai Krai, was also fined 100,000 rubles, or about $1,082, and is to serve 13 years in a maximum penal colony security, according to the publication.

An anonymous source familiar with Yakovlev’s case told the media that Yakovlev donated a “very small amount” of about 5,000 rubles, or $54.

Russian security services said they arrested a 19-year-old man in January on charges of sending money to an anti-Kremlin organization.

The FSB did not release his name at the time, but a video of the arrest circulating online showed Yakovlev saying his name as agents detained him. Russian daily Kommersant reported at the time that the teenager tried to send the funds via cryptocurrency.

It also reported that the beneficiary organization was the Russian Freedom Legion, a paramilitary group that has repeatedly attacked and sabotaged military assets within Russia’s borders for the cause of Ukraine.

Russia’s Supreme Court has designated the group as a terrorist organization.

After Yakovlev’s arrest in January, footage emerged online of federal agents entering an apartment to detain a young man, identified in the video as the 19-year-old.

Court records do not provide details of Iakovlev’s sentence, but show that he was sentenced on September 20 at Russia’s 2nd Eastern Military District Court after multiple hearings over the past two months.

Iakovlev was found guilty of treason and financing terrorism, records show.

Mediazona reported that Yakovlev initially faced charges for multiple attempts to finance terrorism, but that several were dropped because many of his deals failed.

Iakovlev is not the first Russian citizen to be sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for donating to pro-Ukraine groups.

In August, amateur ballerina Ksenia Khavana, 33, was reported by Russian media to have been sentenced to 12 years in prison for donating $51 to a charity supporting Ukraine.

Their cases come after Russian leader Vladimir Putin signed a law in April 2023 increasing the maximum sentence for treason from 20 years to life in prison.