MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/. Gaming platforms and their chats have become an ideal environment for recruiting youth to commit terrorist acts and sabotage, Chairman of Russia's Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin told TASS in an interview.

"Gaming platforms and their chats have become an ideal environment for finding someone to prey on," he said.

Bastrykin explained that in the gaming world, boundaries are blurred, as a child or teenager feels safe among their peers. According to him, an experienced manipulator can start with an innocent request: to share the coordinates of a military enlistment office for a game developer to add the location to a game, to take a photo of something for a contest, or to leave a package in a designated place.

"And just like that, little by little, the line between a virtual quest and a real crime is erased," Bastrykin said.

After completing the first, seemingly innocent task, they're on the hook. "Then blackmail and intimidation follow: threats of violence against loved ones or, conversely, promises of 'piles of gold' and an increase in status within the game. The key point of the recruiter's task is to remove moral responsibility from the teenager. They create an illusion of impunity and significance for the actions proposed to them," Bastrykin emphasized.