MOSCOW, September 24. /TASS/: A teenager from the Russian city of Kirov who had been planning a mass killing at a school was in conflict with his peers, Kirov Region Ombudsman for Children’s Rights Vladimir Shabardin told TASS on Tuesday.
"The teenager had clashed with his peers. The minor is currently receiving psychological assistance. We are also speaking to his classmates," he said, adding that the adolescent is continuing his education.
According to Shabardin, the 16-year-old teenager is currently under a travel ban. Earlier, the Russian Investigative Committee launched criminal proceedings against him.
Earlier on Tuesday, Deputy Director of the Russian Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate for Countering Extremism Vladimir Makarov announced during an all-Russian forum dubbed: "Countering the Ideology of Terrorism Among the Youth in the Education Sphere" that a ‘disciple’ of the Kerch shooter was discovered in Kirov. The suspect is a minor "with an interest in the topic of school violence, who plotted to carry out a mass killing at one of the schools using bladed weapons and an improvised explosive device."
According to Shabardin, the teenager did not possess any weapons or explosives, nor did he have access to them. "In this situation, this is the result of social media monitoring, that is, this adolescent expressed an interest in this topic on the Internet, and he was a member of a corresponding social media community. However, the teen was not violent, and did not possess any weapons," he explained.
