INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
At least nine Russian military enlistment offices have been targeted in arson attacks linked to phone scams in recent days, media
outletsreported Tuesday.The first such incidentsoccurred in annexed Crimea and the central city of Kazan on Saturday, when two middle-aged
women were detained trying to set local enlistment offices on fire,according to the Telegram channel Baza and the news website Realnoye
orders, while a 51-year-old Russian language teacher in Crimea was said to have received similar instructions on the Telegram messaging
app.On Saturday evening, a 76-year-old man was detained in the northern city of Severodvinsk after throwing a Molotov cocktail at an
Petersburg, government-affiliated mediareported that an unidentified man set fire to an enlistment office entrance and rammed its gates on
Petersburg-based Fontanka news website.Similar incidents linked to telephone scams werereported Sunday and Monday in the regions of Moscow,
maximum prison sentence of five years.It was not immediately clear who the alleged phone scammers were, or if they have any links to
Ukraine, as some state-media outlets have claimed.Scores of Russian military enlistment offices have been targeted by arson attacks
following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the Kremlin's mobilization of reservists in September.In January, Russiaissued its
first prison sentence on terrorism charges for an arson attack on a military recruitment office.
