Dishwasher at the Investigative Committee cadet corps sentenced to 19 years in prison in case over recruiting a teenager into the Freedom of Russia Legion

Dishwasher at the Investigative Committee cadet corps sentenced to 19 years in prison in case over recruiting a teenager into the Freedom of Russia Legion

The 2nd Western District Military Court sentenced 53-year-old Moscow resident Alexandra Zhitenko to 19 years in prison, reports Mediazona.

According to the investigation, Zhitenko allegedly got a job as a dishwasher at the Investigative Committee cadet corps in order to recruit teenagers into the Freedom of Russia Legion.

During questioning in court, the cadets said that the woman paid them for shifts in the cafeteria, solving Unified State Exam practice tests, and “creative assignments.” Zhitenko says she came up with a game for them to increase their motivation.

The prosecution believes that the woman deliberately held “conversations justifying terrorist activity” with cadets “in need of money.”

The main evidence was recordings of Zhitenko’s conversations with one of the cadets. According to her, the teenager was the first to start talking to her about the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps, and she tried to talk him out of getting involved with them.

She said that in October 2023 she suggested that the cadet buy medicines allegedly for the legion, and then hand them over to Russian military personnel. To complete the “imitation plot,” she hid “notes in the Ukrainian language” in a cemetery and then retrieved them together with the teenager.

The outlet writes that this was happening under FSB surveillance: the cadet approached the security forces with a request to “check Zhitenko’s activities” back in June 2023. The woman refused to admit guilt.

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