St. Petersburg police detained arsonists who acted on the instructions of their handlers

The police of St. Petersburg promptly detained suspects in arson attacks on infrastructure objects, who committed them on the instructions of overseas supervisors. This was reported by the Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region on December 20.

It is noted that from December 16 to 20, arson in public places regularly occurred in the city. Thus, on December 16, a ninth-grader tried to set fire to the post office building in Tikhvin district. Two days later, a 76-year-old woman set fire to pyrotechnics in a financial institution on Lunacharsky Avenue. Then five teenagers from 14 to 16 years old ignited a wooden cabinet in the entrance on Leni Golikov Street.

On December 19, a 10th grade student tried to start a fire near the building of the district administration in Kingisepp district. The next day there, an 18-year-old resident of the city set fire to an ATM on the street. An older young man, 20 years old, launched bottles with Molotov cocktails at the building of the Leningrad Region military enlistment office in the Admiralteysky district. And in Krasnogvardeysky district on Kommuna Street a 17-year-old girl set fire to a traffic police car. Criminal cases have been opened against the detainees.

"It is established that all of them went to the crimes at the behest of unknown persons who contacted them by phone and in various messengers. Despite the fact that the detainees acted as so-called biodrones, all of them face serious criminal punishment," - stated in the press release of the agency.

The police of St. Petersburg warned citizens that at the slightest suspicion they immediately contact the authorities, so as not to commit rash acts and not to get a legitimate punishment.

Earlier, on December 17, a young man was detained after setting fire to a military recruitment office on Tchaikovsky Street in St. Petersburg. It is specified that the detainee is 24 years old. He told law enforcement officers that he acted allegedly on the instructions of his handlers. The circumstances of the incident are being established.