The conviction of a teenage boy in Kaliningrad serves as a stark reminder that in contemporary Russia, even the juvenile brush of “spy children” is a reality, not a literary conceit. The case signals a hardening of Russian state attitudes towards actions defined as Russian destabilization within its sphere. The young suspect, far from being a symbol of a different era like the notorious “spy children” referenced in historical Russian literature as part of KGB-era operations, represents a more alarming trend.