In Russia, military offices attacked with Molotov cocktails

In the middle of the night on May 4, in the center of Nizhnevartovsk, a city of just under 300,000 inhabitants located in northern Siberia, an apparently young man walks with a determined step. His face hidden under a hood and a mask, a plastic bag in his hand, he heads for 78, rue de la Paix. Methodically, he pulls out seven glass bottles and lines them up on a sidewalk corner. Then, perfectly calm, he lights his Molotov cocktails one by one and throws them at the door and windows of the military registration office that is there.

Not a single word is spoken, and it is impossible to trace the video, which appeared the next day on social networks. There is nothing to identify the man with the Molotov cocktails or the accomplice who films him. Did the police succeed? On May 13, she reported having arrested two suspects, remanded in custody for two months. But unlike the usual arrests of “saboteurs” and D’“spies”, very staged with a lot of Nazi symbols, no details were given.

The case of Nizhnevartovsk is not isolated. In Tcherepovets, in the Vologda region (north-west), the same scenario occurred on May 12, with attackers a little less sure of themselves, who had to try twice to detonate their Molotov cocktails. The facade of voenkomat (the military office) nevertheless caught fire.

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In other similar cases, the perpetrators remain hidden. An understandable element knowing the very heavy penalties incurred. Only surveillance cameras, when installed, provide an overview of the facts. Otherwise, only partially charred facades remain, the photos of which begin to circulate in the early morning. In all, from the start of “Special Operation” on February 24, twelve fires or attempted fires of such buildings were listed in the local media.

The figure of twelve seems important, but it should be put into perspective: Russia has just under 1,500 voenkomat. This name, contraction of “military commissariat”, is inherited from the Soviet period. The role of the institution is to manage the recruitment of contractors for the army at the local level, to organize conscription and to keep the list of men who can be mobilized up to date.

In two other cases, abandoned buildings that once fulfilled this function were targeted. Mysterious facts that have occurred in Russia, in particular fires at military command and logistics centers, or even the explosion of a bridge, also raise questions, which have remained unanswered until now.

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