The court's press release states that the teenager wanted to go to one of the European Union countries to obtain political asylum. On August 20, he flew from St. Petersburg to Konigsberg. On August 24, he reached the town of Sevskoye near Pravdinsk and marched towards the border. Then the teenager swam across the river and crossed the border into Poland. There, according to the court's version, he was detained by officers of the Polish Border Guard and handed over to the Russian side.
Criminal proceedings were initiated against the teenager based on an article regarding illegally crossing the state border. This article provides for a penalty of up to 2 years' imprisonment.
Border Guard and Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs did not respond to The Insider's questions by the time of publication.
A representative of the Russian human rights organization Vyvoyuk noted in a comment for The Insider:
“Unfortunately, since 2020, the practices of border guards in European countries bordering Russia and Belarus have generally been deteriorating. Sending people back is quite a common occurrence if no prior arrangements are made. For example, Lithuania in 2023 sanctioned the right of border guards to turn back people crossing the border outside border crossings, without accepting their asylum applications. Other countries border countries also practice this practice: some in a more hidden form, and others, like Lithuania, in an open way.
In cases like this – if a person has decided to cross the border to apply for asylum – there is definitely a need for a back-up to monitor the situation and guide the person. Which can inform the migration services in good time that such a person is on their territory to make an application [o azyl] it was immediately officially registered. As long as a person is in the gray zone and there is no official information about him, the border guards can simply throw him out of the gray zone or, as was the case in some cases, hand him over directly to the Russian or Belarusian border guards.
