Kabarda–Balkaria resident charged with financing terrorism after ‘collecting donations for charity’
A 53-year-old woman from Kabarda–Balkaria has been charged and placed on the international wanted list, after collecting donations for a charity organisation. The authorities accuse her of transferring the funds to an unspecified terrorist organisation.
On Tuesday, the Russian Investigative Committee’s office in the republic reported that the woman was being charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation, organisation of terrorism financing, and recruitment for a terrorist organisation.
According to the investigation, in November 2016, the woman, whose name has not been disclosed, published a message on social media seeking to collect donations for charitable aid to those in need. She subsequently accumulated ₽1.1 million ($13,400), which, according to investigators, she then transferred to members of a terrorist organisation banned in Russia. The name of the organisation was not revealed in the official statement.
Investigators also claimed that in October 2017, the woman left Russia; she has since been residing abroad where she is allegedly involved in the activities of a terrorist organisation. The authorities have not disclosed her current whereabouts.
This is not the first time similar charges have been brought against local residents. In early July, the investigative authorities reported that a criminal case had been opened against a 40-year-old resident of Kabarda–Balkaria who was suspected of transferring ₽105,000 ($1,300) to a member of an international terrorist organisation. Details of this case have also not been disclosed.
In February, also in Kabarda–Balkaria, officers of the Russian Security Service (FSB) detained a resident of the town of Chegem on charges of supporting terrorism. According to the security service, he transferred almost ₽2 million ($24,000) abroad to members of unnamed ‘international terrorist structures’.
In January, a criminal case was initiated in Nalchik against a 41-year-old Ukrainian national residing there — she was suspected of collecting funds to support the Ukrainian military. According to investigators, she raised donations on social media totalling about ₽1.3 million ($16,00) for the needs of an unnamed Ukrainian ‘nationalist paramilitary group’, allegedly being ‘fully aware’ that such a group was recognised as a terrorist organisation in Russia.
In 2024, siblings Lianna and Askerbiy Khamukov from Kabarda–Balkaria were sentenced to 16.5 and 18 years in prison respectively, for donating to the charity One Body and participating in the activities of the Caucasian Emirate terrorist group. The Khamukovs denied their guilt and claimed to have been tortured in detention.
Human rights activists in Russia warn that the authorities use criminal code articles prohibiting the financing of terrorism as a means to fabricate charges against individuals.
Elizaveta Chukharova
