May 01, 2024

Russians Forced to Become Arsonists


Russians Forced to Become Arsonists
Lit Molotov cocktail ready to be thrown. Ministerie van Defensie, Wikimedia Commons.

Since the outbreak of Russia's full-blown War on Ukraine, many Russians have turned to radical protests, hurling Molotov cocktails at government buildings and military commissariats. Among those engaged in such acts are minor schoolchildren and former law enforcement officers.

However, in certain instances, Molotov cocktails are not thrown by protesters but by isolated elderly individuals influenced by telephone scammers who have conned their victims out of money and sometimes shelter.

According to estimates by the independent online publication Kholod (The Cold), at least 51 people have fallen prey to such scams, including 33 elderly persons. Subsequently, the arsonists are subject to prosecution, at times facing severe criminal charges such as terrorism, carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment. 

A journalist from Kholod interviewed one of the victims of the telephone scams, 61-year-old Galina Rybkina, who attempted to set fire to a branch of Sberbank, one of Russia's largest banks. 

The resident of a small town near the Black Sea, Rybkina received a call in December 2022 from an individual claiming to be from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The caller alleged that the police apprehended a fraudster attempting to secure a loan in her name. Subsequently, Rybkina was contacted by scammers who pretended to be investigators and a Central Bank employee. They instructed Rybkina to preempt the scammers by obtaining a loan herself and transferring money to a “secure” account.

After procuring loans, she was coerced by the criminals into assisting in identifying scammers within real estate agencies. This necessitated selling her two apartments at drastically reduced prices and transferring the funds to the same purportedly secure account.

Consequently, Rybkina was forced to relocate to a hotel. Despite the situation, she was optimistic. She believed the imaginary criminals would be apprehended and her property and funds returned. Instead, the pensioner received a new task: to set fire to a Sberbank branch. Allegedly, it was controlled by scammers they were trying to catch, and the pensioner needed to create a little chaos with the help of brilliant green and a Molotov cocktail. To make a flammable liquid, she was even sent instructions in Ukrainian.

Rybkina meticulously followed the instructions and proceeded to the Sberbank branch. However she was apprehended by a security guard before employing the Molotov cocktail, caught in the act of spraying green paint and exclaiming “Department DSU” (“The DSU Department”). The pensioner doesn’t know what this means, but the scammers probably asked her to shout “Slava ZSU” (“Glory to Armed Forces of Ukraine”) which she did not hear clearly; in other cases, victims of the scammers have shouted pro-Ukrainian slogans.

As a result of what happened, a criminal case was opened against Rybkina under the article of attempted damage to another person’s property. She was lucky and did not receive a real sentence, unlike other victims of scammers. Rybkina was given a two-year suspended sentence, but now has nowhere to live, has debts to the bank, and feels like an outcast in her homestown. Telephone scammers went unpunished. Who exactly is behind them is unknown.

According to the FSB, Ukrainian special services have been implicated in such cases. This assertion is bolstered by instances where the fraudsters instructed their victims to set fire to military registration and enlistment offices. Yet certain details in arson cases suggest provocation by the FSB.

You Might Also Like

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Bears in the Caviar
May 01, 2015

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.

The Moscow Eccentric
December 01, 2016

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.

93 Untranslatable Russian Words
December 01, 2008

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.

At the Circus
January 01, 2013

At the Circus

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.

A Taste of Russia
November 01, 2012

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.

Jews in Service to the Tsar
October 09, 2011

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.

A Taste of Chekhov
December 24, 2022

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.

Driving Down Russia's Spine
June 01, 2016

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 

Faith & Humor
December 01, 2011

Faith & Humor

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

Fish
February 01, 2010

Fish

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955