
Galina Ivanova. Photo: Rotonda / Telegram
A court in St. Petersburg has sentenced a 76-year-old woman to 10 years in prison for setting fire to a car parked near a military recruitment office after being told to do so by phone scammers, local news outlet Fontanka reported on Tuesday.
Galina Ivanova was found guilty of committing a “terrorist attack” after CCTV footage from November 2023 showed her pouring lighter fluid on a minivan, briefly setting it alight, and shouting “Glory to Ukraine” while speaking on the phone to someone she believed to be an agent of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), according to pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Baza.
Thought to have been manipulated by fraudsters, Ivanova received “hundreds of calls” in the month before the arson attempt, losing up to 500,000 rubles (€4,900) to scammers before finally being instructed to commit arson, local news outlet 47news.ru and Baza reported.
Ivanova’s case was one of the first in a wave of arson attacks on military recruitment offices, ATMs, police cars and administrative buildings recorded over the past two years, committed by victims of fraudsters believed to be operating in Ukraine.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russians have carried out at least 187 arson attacks on military recruitment offices and other targets organised by scammers, Russian independent news outlet Mediazona estimated earlier in January, with courts interpreting the arson attacks as premeditated crimes and charging the perpetrators with terrorism and property damage.
Russian investigators opened a separate criminal case into fraud, with forensic experts believing Ivanova had fallen “victim to a destructive ideology” and turned into a “biodrone” to commit crimes “in the interests of an enemy state”, 47news.ru wrote. This assessment, however, did not affect the court’s final verdict on the terror charges.
“It’s absurd to judge and punish the victim”, Ivanova, who confessed to the crime but hoped the court would not give her a lengthy prison term, told 47news.ru before her sentencing.
“This is clearly what the scammers wanted. First to rob a deceived old woman, then to force her to commit a crime, send her to prison and let her die there”, she said, calling the 10 years behind bars a “death sentence” for someone her age.