Moscow pensioner who set her apartment on fire during an eviction has died. She had lost the home after falling victim to scammers.
Natalya Ivanova, a 68-year-old Moscow resident who set herself and her apartment on fire in early August, has died of her burns. The Telegram channels Baza, Mash, and Shot — which have ties to Russia’s security services and law enforcement — reported the death on August 18.
In 2022, Ivanova sold her two-room apartment for 9.5 million rubles and handed the money over to scammers, but never moved out. A court later ruled in favor of the apartment’s new owner.
When bailiffs arrived to evict Ivanova on August 5, 2026, she asked for time to pack her belongings, then set the apartment on fire.
Ivanova had been detained once before, in 2022, after throwing a Molotov cocktail at a draft office building in Moscow. In court, she said the scammers had posed as officers of Russia’s Federal Security Service and Russia’s central bank. She received a two-year suspended sentence for setting fire to the draft office.
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