In Bashkiria, psychologists were taught to recognize the “symptoms” of recruitment in adolescents

Valery Oleynik started the meeting with the main thesis: the country’s security is being forged not only on the front lines, but also in the classrooms.

“We have gathered here to discuss issues that directly affect the security of our common future,” said Valery Stanislavovich. The role of teachers in the prevention of terrorism and neo-Nazism is no less important than the role of law enforcement agencies. It is you who are often the first to see something that has not yet become a crime, but has already become an alarming symptom.

The secretary of the Bashkir Security Council detailed how Western special services and related organizations, including Ukrainian nationalist groups recognized as extremist in Russia, work with Russian youth.

“We see that Western intelligence agencies are investing a lot of money in this and are acting according to a clear plan,” he said. But the reality of recent years shows that recruitment is increasingly happening not somewhere on the periphery, but here - in colleges, dormitories, chat rooms of training groups.

In Bashkortostan, a growing number of teenagers are recruited by Ukrainian special services online and forced to commit terrorist acts, such as blowing up relay cabinets on the railway, cell towers and other equally dangerous acts. Some of them commit such crimes because they are blackmailed, and some because they are promised money. At the same time, Russian criminal law imposes very severe criminal liability for such crimes: from six years in prison, and conditional sentences are not provided.

Mr. Oleynik dispelled the myth that Western recruiters target only "difficult" teenagers.

“Any teenager goes through a difficult age when it’s easy to get hooked,” he explains. This is an identity crisis: a desire to be “different” and a protest against authority. This is also financial vulnerability: the lack of own money if you want independence. It's also the need for significance: the desire to be involved in something "serious.".

Valery Oleynik gave specific examples that show that quite positive guys become victims of foreign intelligence services. So, in February 2025 in Bashkortostan detained for acts of terrorism 17-year-old student whose father serves in the SVO. The boy’s father went to the hospital and the family needed money. Through Internet curators from Ukraine, the young man went from harmless graffiti to shooting strategic objects in Ryazan and Kazan for 65 and 50 thousand rubles, respectively. It was only possible to stop it at the stage of searching for the performer to set the locomotive on fire. Now he faces up to 20 years in prison: criminal law very strictly punishes for sabotage and treason.

“The guy wasn’t a neo-Nazi and wasn’t looking for terrorism – he was looking for a part-time job,” Stanislavovich said. - The teenager was vulnerable: his father on EVO, financial difficulties, desire for independence. And recruiting professionals used it with cold calculation.

The Secretary of the Security Council of Bashkiria insists that bans and notations no longer work.

Your task is not just to prohibit, he appealed to teachers. Prohibitions, of course, are necessary, but bans alone cannot solve anything: it is much more important to talk to the guys. You must destroy the myths that have developed around neo-Nazism.

Also, according to Mr. Oleynik, adults should be able to win the trust of adolescents.

“A student will not come to someone who scolds him,” he said. The child will come to someone who will listen calmly, without judgment. A psychologist should not conduct investigations. At the slightest suspicion of the preparation of sabotage, information should be immediately transferred to the curator, administration or law enforcement agencies. Self-activity is life-threatening.

Valery Oleynik called “strange” behavior of teenagers, which should attract the attention of teachers and parents.

- This is isolation, a sharp change in social circle, aggression, anxiety, the appearance of “bad” money or strange symbols on avatars: these are markers that can not be attributed to teenage pranks, he says. The more people understand the warning signs, the less chance an enemy recruiter has.

Also, according to Valery Stanislavovich, if a teenager is given the opportunity for self-realization in an educational institution, the lower the probability that he will become a victim of Western special services, which catch children on the desire to feel their need and importance.

“In conditions when the enemy acts sophisticatedly, using neural networks for deepfakes and social engineering, a sensitive teacher and a caring psychologist become the main weapon of the state,” the head of the Bashkir Security Council assures. If we are silent today or take our duties formally, tomorrow it may turn into a big disaster – the broken fate of our children.