At least 10 Russian military enlistment offices set on fire in past day

In the past day, at least 11 military enlistment offices were set on fire, according to Mediazona’s calculations.

On the evening of July 31, a 53-year-old man in St. Petersburg threw at least two Molotov cocktails at a military enlistment office’s door before trying to ram the gates leading to the building’s inner courtyard with a vehicle, according to the Telegram channel Mash na Moike. The man said scammers convinced him to take out several loans and then two weeks later, “the bank’s security officer” connected him to an “FSB agent.” He was promised to have his debts written off in exchange for his help uncovering fraud, which required him to set fire to the door to distract the workers.

In the town of Mozhaysk, according to the Telegram channels Shot and Baza, the scammers, posing as bank employees, called a 45-year-old woman and said that people were trying to take out credit under her name. To prevent this, she was asked to pour lighter fluid over the military enlistment office’s windows, where she was told criminals were hiding. Mediazona notes that a similar situation occurred in the town of Rossosh, where a 24-year-old teacher was arrested for throwing a Molotov cocktail at a military enlistment office on August 1.

Chita.ru wrote that in the village of Aginskoe, a 17-year-old girl tried to light a military enlistment office on fire after scammers called her. She claims that they convinced her that a “traitor” was in the office and was transmitting data to Ukrainian intelligence about village residents involved in the war in Ukraine.

Other such incidents occurred in Podolsk (two seniors were detained), Kaluga (a 77-year-old man woman was detained), Chelyabinsk region (two military enlistment offices were set on fire), Kopeysk (a 55-year-old woman was detained), and Verkhneuralsk (a 35-year-old woman was detained). In Sestroretsk, a woman entered a military enlistment office with bags in her hand, warning that she was going to set fire to the building. According to an eye witness, she was nervous and held a phone in her hands.

Baza later reported that a military enlistment office in Ulan-Ude was also set on fire, making it the 12th such incident in 24 hours.

BBC News Russian estimates that there were 17 attempts to set fire to military enlistment offices since July 29.