Supporters of the ruler Vladimir Putin are said to have carried out arson attacks on members of the Russian military and on authorities.
There were probably arrests.
Munich/Moscow - In Russia, there have allegedly been several arson attacks on authorities and military personnel in recent months.
Russia: Putin fans are said to have carried out arson attacks on authorities
At least that's what the independent Russian news website
zona.media
reports .
Since the beginning of the Ukraine war, Russian citizens who are believed to be supporters of President Vladimir Putin have attempted at least 16 arson attempts on government property at the behest of scammers.
According to the report, the suspects attempted to set fire to draft offices, ATMs, a car trunk and a police station.
It is said that several arrests have been made.
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Moscow ruler: Russian President Vladimir Putin.
© IMAGO / Russian Look
Some of them were told to shout pro-Ukrainian slogans while throwing Molotov cocktails at Russian facilities.
As
Business Insider
writes, citing the Russian Telegram news channel
Shot
, the Russian police arrested a 65-year-old Yelena Belova, for example.
This cannot be verified independently.
Putin fans tricked by scammers?
Alleged arson attacks in Russia
She allegedly set fire to the trunk of a deputy army chief's car in August 2022.
As she did so, she is also said to have shouted: "Azov is power!" Azov is a right-wing paramilitary battalion of the Ukrainian armed forces.
Vladimir Putin: The political career of the Russian head of state in pictures
Vladimir Putin: The political career of the Russian head of state in pictures
An unknown person called Belova and convinced her that she would be drafted into a "special operation" against enemy agents.
When she was arrested, Belova is said to have said that she supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
And that she would never have set the car on fire if she had known it belonged to a military commander, the report said.
Putin fans as arsonists?
Alleged arrests in Russia
Another alleged arsonist was a 67-year-old named Olga, reports
yahoo news,
citing Russian sources.
On March 27, the woman tried to light two Molotov cocktails and throw them into a draft office in the city of Nizhny Tagil.
The city with around 360,000 inhabitants is located in the Sverdlovsk Oblast in the central Urals, north of the million-strong metropolis of Yekaterinburg.
But she was stopped by a police officer.
She, too, allegedly fell for a scammer who taught her how to make Molotov cocktails, the report said.
However, the report does not reveal who the alleged fraudsters are supposed to have been.
For example, whether they belonged to the Russian opposition.
Meanwhile, nervousness in Russia seems to be growing because of the expected Ukrainian counter-offensive.
Russia: nervous about expected Ukrainian counter-offensive?
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin publicly criticized the Russian government over the weekend.
"Every day we have stacks of thousands of bodies that we put in coffins and send home," Prigozhin said in an interview with Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov published on Saturday (April 29).
Losses are five times higher than necessary because of the lack of artillery ammunition, he said and threatened to withdraw his troops from Bakhmut in the Donbass, which had been heavily fought for months.
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List of rubrics: © IMAGO / Russian Look
