According to state news agency TASS and independent website Fontanka, about 20 separate cases of individuals attempting to set off small explosive devices or fireworks at buildings have been reported since December 20, mostly in St. Petersburg, Moscow and surrounding suburbs.
Citing an unnamed law enforcement source, TASS reported that the people were recruited by online scammers who offered money for the attempted attacks.
Footage from surveillance cameras at some of the sites shared on social media shows the individuals using their mobile phones to film the fires they were trying to start.
Pictures of the aftermath of one of the attacks show an ATM destroyed and windows smashed nearby, while another shows a burnt-out police car.
ATMs of state-owned banks, shopping malls, post offices, military enlistment offices, police cars and other administrative buildings have been targeted.
State lender Sberbank reported a 30 percent increase in attempted arsons over the past week.
State media also reported that most of those arrested after the attempted attacks were pensioners.
Sberbank said they were recruited by fraudsters in Ukraine.
Moscow's FSB security service has previously warned Russians that Ukrainian fraudsters posing as security agents have been calling senior citizens asking them to commit arson in exchange for money or to regain access to blocked accounts.
Kiev has not reacted to the wave of attempted attacks or to accusations that they were orchestrated from Ukrainian territory.
Several Russian military recruiting offices have been hit in Molotov cocktail arson attacks since Moscow ordered its troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
Conscription buildings have come under more serious attack since President Vladimir Putin announced an unpopular conscription campaign in September 2022 that saw more than 300,000 Russians forcibly conscripted to fight in the conflict.
Russian courts have issued several prison sentences of years to those detained for the raids. | BGNES
