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Saint Petersburg woman sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly setting fire to military enlistment office

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Saint Petersburg woman sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly setting fire to military enlistment office
Saint Petersburg, Russia, in an undated photo. For illustrative purposes. (Walter Bibikow/Getty Images)

Saint Petersburg woman Elena Komaricheva was sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly trying to burn down a military enlistment office, a city court ruled on June 21.

According to the court, Komaricheva received instructions from an unknown source on how to acquire flammable materials and create an improvised Molotov cocktail.

Komaricheva then threw three of the homemade incendiary devices at a recruiting office in September 2023, reportedly causing around 37,000 rubles ($418) of damage.

At least 11 military enlistment offices were set on fire in Russia following the beginning of the general mobilization campaign in September 2022, in which hundreds of thousands of reservists were brought into the army.

A 17-year-old was sentenced to six years in a penal colony in November 2023 for attempting to burn down enlistment centers in Kirovsk and Saint Petersburg.

Even as the peak of mobilization subsided, arson attacks against enlistment offices continued.

The independent Russian media outlet Meduza reported in August 2023 that there had been at least 28 attempts to set fire to enlistment offices over the previous five days.

UK Defense Ministry: Increase in arson attacks at Russian enlistment offices likely signals ‘disaffection’ amid war, potential mobilization
The doubling of arson attacks on Russian enlistment offices in the past six months is likely attributed to a “greater sense of disaffection” among Russians as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues and a potential second wave of mobilization looms, the U.K. Defense Ministry’s assessed in…
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Nate Ostiller

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Nate Ostiller is a former News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. He works on special projects as a researcher and writer for The Red Line Podcast, covering Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and focused primarily on digital misinformation, memory politics, and ethnic conflict. Nate has a Master’s degree in Russian and Eurasian Studies from the University of Glasgow, and spent two years studying abroad at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. Originally from the USA, he is currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia.

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