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Russian courts handled 429 terrorism-related criminal cases in 2024, a 40% increase from the previous year, the country’s top investigative authority said Monday.
“The organizers of these crimes are usually located abroad, while young people, pensioners and others fall under their influence,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement.
It added that perpetrators are often persuaded online under false pretexts to commit arson attacks on transportation infrastructure, government buildings or vehicles.
The Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it may classify such acts as terrorism, sabotage or other crimes depending on the circumstances, warning that all accomplices face criminal liability — including life imprisonment — regardless of whether they were coerced.
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Arson attacks on Russia’s railways and military recruitment offices became a common form of anti-war protest following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, over the past year, Russian authorities have increasingly linked these kinds of attacks to Ukrainian security services.
According to the exiled news outlet Mediazona, phone scammers have coordinated at least 187 arson attacks on Russian military enlistment offices, banks, cars and other facilities since the full-scale invasion.
This month, lawmakers proposed new measures to protect Russians from fraud schemes, including phone scams, by banning government employees from using foreign-developed messaging apps for official communications or citizen outreach.
The proposed restrictions come days after President Vladimir Putin ordered the government, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Interior Ministry to develop measures blocking criminal calls from Ukraine and other so-called “unfriendly” countries, a designation primarily aimed at Western states.
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