{
  "id": 7304774,
  "title": "Russian man sentenced to 12 years for online harassment that drove schoolgirl to attempt suicide",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/14/russian-man-sentenced-to-12-years-for-online-harassment-that-drove",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-14T11:20:39.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Meduza (English)",
    "slug": "meduza-english",
    "url": "https://meduza.io/en/news/2026/09/14/russian-man-sentenced-to-12-years-for-online-harassment-that-drove-schoolgirl-to-attempt-suicide"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Novgorod District Court in Russia has sentenced 21-year-old Mikhail Shalimov to 12 years in prison for driving a 16-year-old schoolgirl, Diana from Ufa, to attempt suicide. According to the court's press release, the harassment began when Shalimov met Diana in a VK community dedicated to the game Minecraft. The conflict escalated into months of online threats, bomb hoaxes, and videos of animal abuse. Shalimov allegedly used publicly available information about Diana, including her home address, phone number, school, and relatives, to threaten her directly and make bomb threats in her name. He even called Diana's parents at their workplaces, posing as her father to report a murder. Shalimov demanded Diana kill herself, promising to stop the harassment if she did. He was found guilty of driving a minor to attempt suicide and orchestrating knowingly false reports of terrorist attacks. This case follows a series of convictions in Russia for similar online harassment leading to suicide, often linked to \"death groups\" that gained public attention in 2016 after a report by Novaya Gazeta. The first conviction, Filipp Budeikin, received a three-year and four-month sentence in 2017, followed by other cases with harsher punishments, culminating in Ilya Pogiblov's nine-year sentence in 2025.",
  "summary": "The Novgorod District Court sentenced Mikhail Shalimov, 21, to 12 years in prison for driving a schoolgirl from Ufa to attempt suicide.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}