Notes at the Front

lya Baburin is an IT specialist living in Novosibirsk who has been opposed to Moscow’s War on Ukraine since its inception. This year he was convicted on an array of charges – state treason, committing an act of terror, illegal wiretapping, participating in an illegal armed group, and terrorist activity – and sentenced to 25 years in a strict penal colony.

What did Baburin actually do? According to his lawyer, the 24-year-old briefly entertained the idea of throwing a Molotov cocktail into a military commissariat – a wave of such attacks in 2022 followed President Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilization call – and discussed it with a couple of friends. He later changed his mind, but his friends went to the security services and ratted him out. FSB agents then conspired with Baburin’s friends to convince him to implement his original plan, effectively provoking the crime, so that they could swiftly arrest him and accuse him of acting on the orders of a Ukrainian armed group.

Below is Baburin’s final declaration in court, the latest in our series of “Last Words” uttered by Russians imprisoned on politically-motivated charges. It remains one of the last vestiges of free speech in modern Russia.