Eight residents of Stavropol are accused of failing to report a friend.

Seven teenagers and a 21-year-old young man from the Andropovsky district will stand trial on charges of failing to report a minor supporter of a terrorist organization.

The court in the Stavropol region will consider eight criminal cases under the article on failure to report a crime (Article 205.6 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), initiated against participants of the same company. The article charged against the young men provides for up to one year of imprisonment.

Seven of the eight accused are teenagers aged 14 to 17, and the eighth accused is 21 years old. According to the prosecution's version, all of them learned in 2025 that their acquaintance, also a minor, had become a member of a terrorist organization banned in Russia.

The teenager, as investigators believe, was involved in recruitment and preparation for a terrorist act. The accused were aware of this but did not report it to law enforcement agencies, according to a statement from the regional Investigative Committee.

The agency added that the minor participant in the terrorist organization is also under investigation. It is not specified whether a preventive measure has been chosen for him.

According to the prosecutor's office, the teenager from the village of Krasnoyarsk “organized the continuation of the activities of a terrorist organization banned in Russia” from February to May 2025. He called on acquaintances, primarily his peers, to “join the ranks of the illegal group and carry out activities in its interests to the detriment of the security of the Russian Federation.”

“In response to the illegal propaganda, several people from the agitator's circle pledged allegiance to the terrorist organization,” the statement from the Stavropol prosecutor's office notes.

The eight accused of failing to report, as stated by the agency, knew for certain that “the young man enticing them into the ranks of militants had previously himself become a participant in the banned community.”

Law enforcement agencies in the North Caucasus use the article on failure to report to intimidate relatives and acquaintances of alleged militants, although its legal application is only possible under certain conditions, lawyers interviewed by "Caucasian Knot" previously indicated. These conditions are not always met in practice: the accused must have reliable and specific information about the crime and specific facts of criminal activity, while abstract rumors, assumptions, or everyday conversations do not fall under the action of the article.

"Caucasian Knot" also reported that in November 2025, a 20-year-old resident of the Urvansky district of Kabardino-Balkaria was accused of failure to report after the investigation stated that he was acquainted with participants in the attack on law enforcement officers in Nalchik and knew about their plans.