The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday that the Ukrainian special services were behind arson attacks on facilities of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and state-owned Russian Railways.
The FSB’s investigations “indicate the direct involvement of the Ukrainian special services,” the agency said in a statement published on its website.
The Ukrainian special services “rely on young people, the elderly, the marginalized, the mentally ill, who do not realize the severity of their actions,” the agency said, claiming the victims receive fraudulent calls from people claiming to be with security services, employees of the Investigative Committee, the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the FSB.
The callers psychologically manipulate people to transfer their savings to “safe accounts,” and have also persuaded them to carry out arson attacks, according to the FSB’s claims.
The FSB said arsonists have been sentenced to multiple years of imprisonment under the country’s criminal code in a list of a dozen territories across Russia, ranging from Moscow to far-flung regions.
Some background: In late July and throughout August, there were widespread arson attacks on military enlistment offices across Russia.
Ukraine has often refrained from directly commenting on attacks on Russian soil.
A source linked to a Russian partisan group denies Russians are being coerced, telling CNN that the Kremlin wants to hide the growing discontent in society. “If people weren’t angry with the authorities, they wouldn’t do anything,”
