Girls, everything will be fine with me

Dozens of Russian pensioners are set fire by military registration and enlistment offices and banks because of telephone scammers. Here is the story of one such woman who has lost everything

For more than one and a half years, which have been held on February 24, 2022, in the cities of Russia they set fire to or tried to set fire to many military commissariats and administrative buildings. Often, these actions were held by people who thus want to protest against the actions of Russia in Ukraine, but not always: in many cases, lonely elderly people who had already left their victims without money, and sometimes housing by that time, were thrown by bottles with Molotov’s cocktail. After these shares, the arsonists are judged, sometimes - under heavy criminal articles, which implies a long prison conclusion. The special corner of the “cold” Maria Karpenko recognized the story of the 61-year-old Galina Rybkina, who tried to set fire to the Sberbank office, and talks about how pensioners in Russia become invisible victims of the “special operation”.

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In the summer of 2023, military commissariats were once again set on fire in Russia. At some point, the news about this appeared every few hours: in five days of July and August, they tried to set fire to at least 28 buildings in different cities. Almost no one succeeded. Almost everyone, about whom they wrote in the media, were detained by the police - and all of them, as it turned out, became victims of scammers.

Most of those who were convinced by deceiting to mix Molotov’s cocktail and throw him into the administrative building were pensioners. I wanted to talk about how older people, without realizing it, become violators of the law - and how this changes their future life. To try to do this, I wrote dozens of messages by the arsonists, their friends and lawyers. But he could not talk to anyone. First of all, because there was no one with. Most people who have become victims of fraud are old people who have no one: neither children, nor spouses, nor close friends.

Three months later, in November 2023, I was called one of the women whose name was mentioned in the news of the arson of the Sberbank building in the south of Russia-61-year-old Galina Rybkin ( Kholod changed her name for security purposes ). Her story appeared in the news in the spring: the Shot telegram channel wrote about her as an “unemployed saboteur”, her act sarcastically called the word “performance” and reassured the readers: “The rowdy was neutralized”. Rybkin did not see my message for a long time, because the police were seized from her, and only now she managed to restore access to her social networks.

She began the conversation with the fact that she wanted to die.

How can I abyss?

Galina Ivanovna Rybkin buried her beloved husband in September 2021. He died unexpectedly and quickly: ischemic stroke. In the morning, Vyacheslav Rybkin bathed into the sea, swept by bicycle to the house and went to mess around in the garage, while his wife spent time with relatives who came to visit them. When Galina returned home, she went into the garage - and saw her husband on the floor.

Galina and Vyacheslav Rybkin managed to live together in their own pleasure in their own pleasure in the Black Sea village. To the south, they moved five years ago from a closed Ural city, where they lived all their lives. Galina worked at a secret enterprise, Vyacheslav was a military man. They accumulated money by the pension, picked up two apartments on the Black Sea - to live in one, rent the other - they got into the car with the cat Christina and left, fulfilling their old dream.

By the sea, they started two huge mongrels, Lucyu and Misha. They bathed, fishing, called friends for barbecue, rode bicycles, went to the water park. There was a husband in their family - Galina herself was modest and gullible and was easily led to deception: once she herself did not notice how the gypsies on the street cleaned her wallet.

Now she recalls how her husband said: "God forbid, something will happen to me, you will disappear immediately."

“Yes, how can I abyss, glorious,” she answered. - I lived for so many years, did not disappear, normal.

“You will be lost because you are a fool, you believe everyone.”

After the death of her husband, Galina was left alone: ​​they had no children, relatives lived in the Urals. A year and a half after the funeral, people appeared in her life who replaced her and friends and relatives for a long time.

For the first time she was called December 23.

“Hello, Galina Ivanovna,” the woman introduced herself as an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. - We took a comrade by the name of Belov here. He made a power of attorney from you to take a loan of 400 thousand. Do you want me to connect you with the investigator?

So Galina Rybkina met two men: an investigator and leader from the Central Bank - so she remembered his position. They corresponded and called up in Watsap every day many times. (I tell the story of their communication from the words of Rybkina, as well as according to the text of the judicial sentence and according to the materials of the media.)

It was necessary to be constantly in touch. Together with Galina Rybkina, representatives of the authorities solved an important problem: they caught corrupt officials and scammers, who, as it turned out, were nodded to her southern town. These were the accomplices of the same Belov, detained in Moscow. To calculate them, Rybkina had to go to the branch of each bank and try to take a loan. If the application is approved, it means that the bank has accomplices of the fraudster. Galina Rybkina could prevent them from making a loan on her behalf in only one way: to take a loan of herself and transfer money to a safe account.

Step -by -step instructions on how exactly and where to transfer money, Rybkina was sent in Watsap - there were prints and signatures on the document. She was warned: this information is not subject to disclosure, for violation - up to one and a half years in prison. Rybkina understood everything: in the end, she worked all her life at a secret enterprise and knew what a state secret was.

The caring voices of the investigator and the head from the Central Bank in the telephone tube supported Rybkin constantly: and when she went behind the next loan, and when she stood with a pack of bills at the ATM to send them to a safe account. They helped to double -check every figure so that the money, God forbid, did not go there. They reassured when the ATM spit out bills. They reminded to look around and check so that no one was standing nearby. They advised to keep all the checks and receipts.

Rybkina had no doubt that the money would be safe. The investigator and the head from the Central Bank helped her to remove and translate them in a special way - through the “transaction”. According to, where scammers could steal money from, automatically closed - also thanks to the "transaction". What is a “transaction”, Rybkina did not know.

She had a great mood. The friends were surprised: they asked why she was constantly traveling around the city. She mysteriously answered: "I ride the girls along the coast, we have fun."

In fact, she traveled around the city, helping to catch scammers: it soon became clear that they settled not only in banks, but also in local real estate agencies. Therefore, both apartments Rybkina were already put up for sale without her knowledge. But she was not worried - she knew that with the help of representatives of the authorities she could get ahead of criminals and sell housing herself.

When the realtors came to watch apartments, Rybkina kept the phone by the ear: she said that she was consulting with her brother. When realtors knocked down the price, she was advised: “Agree, if only they would take it!” When the realtors asked if she was going to leave furniture in the apartment, at the other end of the wire she was told: “Of course, leave it, this will still remain, this is not for long, we only catch scammers in this agency. Why take everything out if you return soon? "

So Galina Rybkina sold both apartments for nothing and went to live in a hotel, taking only clothes with her. I transferred the money from the sale there, to a safe account - by "transaction". Girlfriends were alarmed in earnest, but she reassured: "Girls, I will be fine."

So two months passed. Throughout this time, Rybkina almost every night dreamed of a late husband. She perceived this as a sign: “Well done, Galya. Continue".

Department of DSU

In early March, Rybkina came the next message in Watsap: "Galina Ivanovna, you need to do a small arson."

She was explained that the leader of the gang, who enveloped his criminal network, was found. It turned out that this leader controls the local office of Sberbank: even the building itself belongs not to the state, but to a private person, and half of the employees of this office are scammers.

The authorities have already planned a special operation: they will take the pseudo -bunkers, and Galina Rybkina’s task is to scare them, "to arrange a booth for deceiving depositors, ordinary people."

She was explained that during the operation near the building there would be a filming group of Channel One and a car with the employees of the Russian Guard. The task of Rybkina is to go to the bank’s office, set fire to it, pour the floor with green - in general, create chaos and calmly go out, giving the opportunity to hold the detentions.

They sent Rybkina and instructions on how to make a Molotov cocktail. For some reason, she was in Ukrainian, but Rybkin did not frighten it-only puzzled.

- Who will pour my gasoline into the bottle, what are you? She asked.

“So it is necessary to go to the store,” the investigator answered her.

Galina Ivanovna bought gasoline canister and poured it into a glass bottle that she found in a pharmacy. I arrived at the Sberbank office. The interlocutors from Watsap were in touch and gave the last instruction: "Take everything in the video."

Rybkina went to Sberbank and closed in the office toilet. I poured a puddle of gasoline on the floor. I soaked them a rag, which she brought with her, and set fire.

Leaving the toilet to the hall, she took out a bubble of green. And she began to walk around the bank’s office, pour the green on the floor and shout: “The Department of the DSU! Department of DSU! ” It was such a slogan, as it seemed to her, she was instructed to shout when they gave instructions. What it means, Galina Ivanovna did not know.

The guard ran up. He kicked Rybkin and broke her hand stained with green. When he brought her out into the street, Rybkina looked around. There was neither a film crew nor employees of the Russian Guard - only dumbfounded visitors to the bank.

A terrorist attack in a group of persons

Messages about the people who are set fire by the military enlistment offices at the direction of scammers, for the first time began to appear in August 2022. Since then, according to the calculations of the "cold", 51 people have become victims of the swindlers. Of these, 31 are pensioners.

Pensioners are really one of the most vulnerable to such operations of groups of people. But age is far from the only factor. In 2013, British psychologists talked about a series of experiments: they were conducted to find out what features of the psyche distinguish people who become victims of Internet meshs. It turned out the following. Firstly, in such people, the quality of decision-making is significantly reduced as soon as a very strong motivation is in view-for example, the prospect of getting something incredibly valuable.

Secondly, the victims of scammers are more likely to rely on an authoritative opinion. In general, people tend to trust information that comes from the sources endowed with power or knowledge. Therefore, people will believe with more readiness to a person dressed in a white medical robe. Reading such signs is actually the beneficial ability of the brain, the so-called cognitive shortcut, which allows you to make quick decisions in everyday life, without thinking. It is this “shortcut” that fraudsters are operating when they submit state bodies, according to another scientific work published in 2014.

Another feature of the psyche used by scammers is the desire of people to be consistent, to feel like those who bring the matter to the end. Studies show that people who have already agreed to some insignificant request will more likely say “yes” to the next proposal-simply because they want to seem consistent.

Left without money, and sometimes without housing, the deceived Russians also face persecution by the state. In most cases, people who have tried under the influence of fraudsters to commit arson are accused under articles about hooliganism or about attempting to destroy someone else's property. But there are other cases. At least three pensioners were charged under an article on a terrorist attack. The softest punishment for it is 10 years in prison.

It is under this article that the 60-year-old Elena Chernykh, who worked as a watchman at a school in Yelets. On the night of November 9 to 10, she came to the military enlistment office building, splashed liquid for roding on the window of the first floor and set it on fire (according to other sources , she came with someone else, and everyone threw it into the building on Molotov’s cocktail).

Blacks were convinced by the scammers who talked with her for a month. During this month, she managed to transfer 600 thousand rubles to them, which she took on credit. Then a man who introduced himself as an investigator contacted her: he said that the money was lying inside the military registration and enlistment office and, in order to return it, it was necessary to set fire to the building. The pensioner’s act was regarded as an attempt on a terrorist attack committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy.

The same accusation, only without a group of people, was brought by two more elderly women. The 60-year-old Nadezhda Kornilova from Usinsk, who worked as a maid in a cleaning company, tried to set fire to the door of the military enlistment office (whether she was a victim of fraudsters, was not reported). 59-year-old Elena Sharova from Kemerovo threw a bottle of incendiary mixture at the military registration and enlistment office- according to the anonymous telegram channel “Kemerovo Extraise”, people convinced her to whom she transferred more than two million rubles.

In the human rights organization "The Solidarity Zone", which is engaged in supporting the repressed for anti -war shares, at first tried to provide Elena Sharova assistance. But then the lawyer who visited the pensioner in the pre -trial detention center, where she was waiting for the end of the investigation, handed over that the woman asks to “lag behind her” and not write letters with words of support - she will not communicate with anyone.

The victims of fraudsters who are against milder accusations than a terrorist attack are still sometimes in jail. For example, 55-year-old Jeanne Romanovskaya from Vladimir, who takes place under an article on hooliganism, has been detained for several months. Romanovskaya was an official of the regional government: she worked as the head of the financing department of the Vladimir Ministry of Architecture. Fraudsters lured her several million rubles from her, which Romanovskaya took on credit and on a debt from acquaintances, and forced to quit three Molotov cocktails into the military enlistment office.

A trip to the village

Galina Rybkin was taken from the Sberbank building first to the FSB, and then to the police department. For the whole day it was kept alone in the temporary detention center. In the hotel room that was rented by Rybkin, there was one cat Christina.

The security forces who interrogated her, Galina Ivanovna tried to explain that she acted "under hypnosis."

“We have no mitigating circumstances,” the security forces answered, as Rybkina recalls. - Now, if you were in a state of affect, intoxication, narcotic ... or if you were crushed. But they didn’t crush you? Didn't threaten your life?

- Of course, I was not threatened. Vice versa. They promised that everything will be good.

During interrogations, Rybkin was asked why she screamed "Glory to the APU." And she explained to the security forces that she screamed: “Department of the DSU” - “What does the APU, what the DSU - how do I know what it is?”

They released Rybkin from the insulator, but a criminal case was brought under an article on attempted damage to other people's property. Six months later, the court found her guilty and sentenced her to two years conditionally.

All this time she walked the streets, lowering her head and not looking not people: God forbid, who would find out. There was nowhere to live. She didn’t think to return to her homeland: she was sure that she had disgraced the enterprise where she worked all her life, and her hometown - and the whole country now knows that it was judged. “I feel like an outcast in this society,” she says. “I don’t know how to survive in such a situation and where to go.”

So not only she felt. In early August, six months after the scammers deceived Rybkin, a wave of arson, arranged according to the exactly the same scheme, passed through Russia. The arsonists were detained. One of them was 76-year-old Valery Mikhailovich Ershov from Vsevolozhsk, a small city near St. Petersburg. On the morning of August 2, he threw two Molotov cocktails towards the military enlistment office building. They did not reach the goal - only the asphalt caught fire under his feet.

Ershov lived most of his life with his wife in St. Petersburg, but often came to the region of his mother. He talked about these visits like this: "I will go to the village." In comparison with St. Petersburg, the 80 thousandth Vsevolozhsk really resembled the village, and Valery Mikhailovich himself, who spent his childhood in the village in the Vologda Oblast, was bored in village life and often recalled in conversations with his colleagues the house where his grandmother lived, and the shanges that she baked him.

Like many Soviet people of his generations, Valery Ershov worked for several decades at the same enterprise. He was an engineer and served electronics on military ships. Годы проходили по одному и тому же сценарию: пара месяцев в командировке на судне, неделя-две дома — и снова в командировку. Труда Валерий Ершов не чурался, работником был добросовестным, вспоминает в разговоре с «Холодом» его коллега: на пенсию не уходил до последнего, продолжал работать, даже когда ему перевалило за 70.

Несколько лет назад Валерий Ершов похоронил жену. А в мае 2023 года продал жилье в Петербурге и перебрался во Всеволожск, в двушку в панельном доме, которая досталась ему от покойной мамы. Его жизнь на пенсии была одинокой: детей не завел, единственный родственник — сводный брат, отношения с которым у Валерия Михайловича, по словам его соседки, были не очень близкими. Поэтому, когда летом 2023 года Валерию Ершову стали писать и звонить люди, представившиеся сотрудниками ФСБ, посоветоваться ему было не с кем.

Как и Галину Рыбкину, Ершова убедили, что его квартиру во Всеволожске выставили на продажу мошенники и спасти положение можно, только если опередить их и продать жилье самому. Он так и поступил — а потом, по указке тех же людей, устроил поджог военкомата.

После того как в полиции Ершову объяснили, что произошло на самом деле, он вернулся в проданную квартиру, откуда еще не успел съехать. Переночевал. На следующее утро вышел на лестницу и выкинул мусор.

Спустя несколько часов его тело нашли дома. Валерий Михайлович повесился.

Заслуженное и суровое наказание

Мошенники, которые вынуждают россиян устраивать поджоги, — это люди, причастные к украинским спецслужбам, заявили в августе 2023 года в ФСБ. Там отчитались, что успешно наказывают поджигателей: большую часть осудили, а остальные скоро «понесут заслуженное и суровое наказание».

О поимке тех, кто убеждает россиян поджигать военкоматы и банки, власти после 24 февраля сообщали несколько раз: в апреле, мае и июне 2023 года (еще одну группу мошенников, которые «содействовали» украинцам, задержали в конце апреля 2023 года, но тогда в сообщении МВД упоминали только похищение денег, а не склонение к поджогам). В последние годы российские власти, впрочем, публично возлагают на Украину ответственность за большую часть всех случаев телефонного мошенничества. Например, старший вице-президент «Сбербанка» Станислав Кузнецов в феврале 2023 года заявил, что 92–95% всех таких преступлений совершаются с территории Украины, хотя раньше, по его словам, примерно 40% приходилось на кол-центры, организованные на территории российских колоний. Прокремлевское издание Life.ru публиковало расследование об украинских кол-центрах, однако в нем не приводилось никаких доказательств того, что сотрудники этих кол-центров призывают россиян совершать поджоги.

В пользу версии о том, что такие мошенники действительно работают в интересах Украины, говорит тот факт, что поджоги часто устраивают в разных городах России в один и тот же день или на протяжении нескольких дней подряд — вероятно, чтобы про это больше писали СМИ, что, в свою очередь, может влиять на моральное состояние россиян.

Еще один аргумент за «украинскую» версию — то, что люди, которые склоняют россиян поджечь военкомат, не всегда вымогают деньги: изучив записи книг учета сообщений о преступлениях, мы выяснили, что случаев, когда речь сразу идет именно о поджоге, не так мало. Например, в июле 2023 года 85-летней пенсионерке из Москвы позвонил человек, который представился сотрудником ФСБ по фамилии Карпов. Денег он у нее не просил, но сказал, что нужно бросить «коктейль Молотова» в здание военкомата, чтобы «выявить предателей», а если она откажется, то ее сына призовут в армию и отправят на фронт. Другой пример: 64-летнему пенсионеру из Москвы в марте 2023 года объявили по телефону, что скоро за неуплату отключат воду и свет в квартире. Избежать этого можно было только одним способом — поджечь ближайший военкомат и прислать фотоотчет об этом. (Оба пенсионера слушаться мошенников не стали, а сразу обратились в полицию. Расследуются ли эти инциденты, неизвестно).

Впрочем, иногда в делах о поджогах появляются детали, которые указывают на провокацию со стороны ФСБ. Например, 19-летнюю Леру Зотову из Ярославля приговорили к шести годам колонии за покушение на теракт после того, как она согласилась поджечь здание сельской администрации, где находился пункт сбора помощи для российских военных, за две тысячи долларов. Их ей пообещал человек, который переписывался с ней в ватсапе и называл себя сотрудником украинских спецслужб по имени Андрей. Одновременно с этим Андреем в жизни Леры Зотовой появилась новая знакомая по имени Карина, которая тоже жила в Ярославской области; она помогла Лере в попытке поджога. Во время суда выяснилось , что Карина была внедренным агентом ФСБ; адвокат Леры Зотовой уверен, что и человек из ватсапа, который представлялся сотрудником СБУ, тоже на самом деле работал в ФСБ.

В одной из публикаций о задержании очередного пожилого поджигателя был указан телеграм-аккаунт человека, который представился следователем и отправил пенсионера на преступление. Я написала этому человеку и спросила, зачем он это сделал. «Я этим занимаюсь не в одиночку, а за бесплатно не буду рассказывать какие-то подробности о том, зачем и, самое главное, как происходит вербовка», — ответил он. На реплику о том, что обманывать пожилых — невеликая наука, неизвестный написал: «И учителей с высшим образованием? Молодых людей? Даже российских военных? Раз вы так отлично в этом разбираетесь и вам все известно, то можете сами попробовать таким заняться, очень интересно, как у вас это получится».

Все серое стало

Получив приговор, Галина Рыбкина устроилась в «Пятерочку» мыть полы.

На днях на прилавках стали появляться новогодние украшения. Галина Ивановна смотрит на них равнодушно. «Мир из голубого, из розового превратился в серый, — говорит она. — Все серое стало. Меня вообще ничего не радует. Ни море, ни небо, ни розы, ничто».

Раньше Рыбкина любила играть на гитаре, петь и шутить в компании подруг. Теперь с подругами она почти не общается. «Девчонки звонят, спрашивают, как дела. Ничего интересного у меня нет. А их жизнью я не интересуюсь. That's all. "

Со слов полицейских Рыбкина поняла, что они возбудили уголовное дело о мошенничестве, жертвой которого она стала, но расследуется ли оно и есть ли у нее шанс получить какую-то компенсацию, она не знает. «У меня забрали документы в полиции, и все, — рассказывает Рыбкина. — Больше меня не вызывали. Такое ощущение, что записаться к нашему президенту легче, чем попасть в местную полицию, чтоб узнать, как там дело».

Сама она думает, что мошенниками были украинцы, которые хотели «радость испытать, что россиянка против России такое сделала». О том, что в России есть люди, которые поджигают военкоматы не по указке мошенников, а по собственной воле, в знак протеста, она ничего не знает: говорит, что никогда об этом не задумывалась. Сама она в прошлом ставила в «Одноклассниках» лайки постам в поддержку «спецоперации».

Незадолго до того как лишиться денег и квартир, Галина Рыбкина отдала волонтерам, которые занимаются спасением бездомных животных, двух своих собак Люсю и Мишу: после смерти мужа ей стало тяжело с ними справляться. Недавно она узнала, что волонтеры сумели пристроить их в семью, которая живет в Латвии. Новые хозяева присылают ей видео о том, как счастливо теперь живут собаки. «Там свой дом, шикарнейший двор. У них же в Прибалтике нет своего горючего, и когда берут собак, то они как лишнее топливо: они греют [хозяев], на кроватях лежат, — радуется Галина Рыбкина. — Сейчас у меня собаки на атласных простынях спят, а я, их хозяйка, на улице. Поменялись местами».

Аренда жилья отнимает у нее половину пенсии. Деньги, которые ей платят в «Пятерочке», недавно с карты стали снимать банки — в счет погашения кредитов.

«Пока картошка и морковка есть, ладно. Лишь бы кошка была сыта. Я-то и хлеб с водой могу, а кошку надо кормить, она “Феликс” просит, — говорит Галина Рыбкина. — Я на нее смотрю, она на меня. Накормлю ее, она заснет, и я перед ней извиняюсь: “Кристина, прости свою непутевую маму”».