Russian teenage political prisoner placed in solitary confinement as mother fears for his life

Seventeen-year-old political prisoner Arseny Turbin has been placed in solitary confinement to prevent him from receiving a parcel while in pretrial detention, the Russian NGO Perm Human Rights Community claimed on Wednesday. 

Relatives of the teenager, who is currently being held in a pretrial detention centre in Moscow, attempted to deliver him a food parcel on Tuesday, but after initially being instructed to wait, were eventually turned away altogether by a member of staff who informed them that Turbin had been placed in solitary confinement and could not therefore take delivery of the package.

"I'm just afraid for my child's life” Turbin’s mother said following the incident, “it seems to me that the situation is developing so cruelly that I fear for his life”. She then asked whether the authorities were attempting to drive her son to suicide. 

Turbin, against whom new charges were brought in February for participation in unspecified “mass riots”, has been in prison since 2024, when, aged just 15, he was handed a five-year sentence after being convicted of participating in a terrorist organisation over correspondence he entered into with the Freedom of Russia Legion, which fights alongside the Armed Forces of Ukraine and is banned in Russia. 

His trial is set to continue this week, and his family and friends have said that they believe the new charges against him were brought to ensure he had to remain in prison for several more years, with the new charges meaning he could face a further 3–8 years behind bars.