The Pushkinsky District Court of St. Petersburg arrested local resident Alexei Gribanov for two months on charges of hooliganism for political reasons, the press service of the city courts reports .
According to investigators, on April 26, Gribanov poured flammable liquid over the facade of the Historical and Literary Museum of the city of Pushkin and set it on fire. As the press service writes, the crime was committed as part of a group of persons by prior agreement. Gribanov's accomplices have not been identified. He himself was detained on the same day not far from the museum.
As Fontanka found out , Gribanov is 25 years old , he is a graduate student at St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. During interrogation, the man said that he was asked to set fire to the building by unknown persons. They promised to prevent the criminals who allegedly issued a loan for Gribanov.
The publication claims that the callers persuaded Gribanov to set fire to the military enlistment office and the military commissar's car, but he refused. Then they agreed to set fire to the museum, which is located opposite the object of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. During the detention, Gribanov shouted out a “Ukrainian patriotic greeting,” writes Fontanka.
This is not the first time in the past few months that Russians detained on suspicion of attacking military registration and enlistment offices and other facilities say that they were pushed to do so by scammers. Most often this happens with pensioners. On March 27, in Nizhny Tagil, an elderly woman came to the military registration and enlistment office building with acetone, gauze and plastic bottles. After the arrest, she said that she was receiving calls from an unknown person who introduced herself to her as a bank employee and forced her to set fire to the military registration and enlistment office. He also gave her instructions on how to make an incendiary mixture.
On February 12, a pensioner in Tatarstan set fire to a Sberbank branch. 63-year-old Aisulu Sh. entered the dressing room of a branch, a bank, spilled flammable liquid on the floor and set it on fire. After that, she fled, but she was quickly detained. The woman said that scammers forced her to set fire to the ATM. First, she sent them 100 thousand rubles, and then they promised to return the money – but only after she sets fire to the Sberbank branch, Baza wrote.
In August last year, a pensioner set fire to the car of an official of the Ministry of Defense. According to her , she thought she was participating in a "special operation" and helping the Russian military. She said phone scammers first convinced her to take out a loan to fight with the bandits, and then burn the car and shout at the same time "Azov is power!". Relatives of the pensioner assured that she herself supported the war.
Mediazona collected information on all known cases of arson associated with telephone scammers.