Recreating various real-world buildings is one of the players’ favorite pastimes in Minecraft, though the Russian government does not seem to share this fascination. The final result of the teenagers’ arrest and subsequent sentencing is that one of them will need to serve a five-year sentence in a penal colony, while the others got suspended sentences due to pleading guilty.
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While some Minecraft players keep busy building working tractors, the three unlucky teenagers showed interest in the FSB’s Lubyanka offices. Specifically, they were accused of recreating the building in Minecraft with the intent of using this recreation to train for a future real-world terrorist attack. They were originally arrested due to hanging up leaflets that said “the FSB is the main terrorist,” according to The Moscow Times, as well as supporting a proclaimed local anarchist, Azat Miftakhov.
After they were arrested, the FSB searched through the teenagers’ phones and discovered footage of them making pyrotechnics and Molotov cocktails, as per the reports, as well as plotting to blow up their virtual rendition of the Lubyanka offices. Minecraft recreations include both fantasy and real-world projects, such as the Minecraft rendition of the Eiffel Tower. These are usually not nearly as realistic as the source suggests the FBS recreation may have been, thanks to the game’s blocky visual style.
The two teenagers that pleaded guilty were placed under house arrest, while the third, Nikita Uvarov, denied his guilt and claims to have been placed under mental and physical duress to confess. “I had a desire to learn something new,” said Uvarov, who may have been playing Minecraft due to being bored, as teenagers are wont to do. “I would just like to finish my studies, get an education and go somewhere far away from here, somewhere I don’t irritate anyone from the special services.”
Russian human rights activists claim that Uvarov is being used as an example to strike fear among young Russians that may be critical of the current government. Considering the fact that the teenagers were just 14-years old at the time of their arrest, and how deliberately unrealistic Minecraft’s house-building techniques are in most cases, the five-year prison sentence may seem particularly Draconian in this context.
Minecraft is currently available on PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Android, and iOS platforms.
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Source: The Moscow Times (via IGN)
