Police in Yekaterinburg, Russia, have detained three people accused of defrauding participants in the country's military operation in Ukraine, known in Russia as the SVO, after one suspect posing as a soldier's wife was struck by a getaway car in an incident caught on video, Russia's Interior Ministry said, according to Lenta.ru.
Footage released by the ministry showed a woman walking along a street when police officers approached her, moments before a sport utility vehicle drove into her and fled the scene. The woman got up from the pavement afterward. Investigators said she had been posing as the common-law wife of a soldier.
Bank visit raised suspicion
According to police, the woman visited a bank in mid-August and demanded 2.5 million rubles from the account of her supposed common-law husband, presenting a passport and a power of attorney. She told bank staff her husband was serving in the SVO zone and that the money was urgently needed to treat their child. Bank employees grew suspicious and told her to return in a few days while they prepared the cash, giving security forces time to arrest her.
She had two accomplices, police said. One of them, driving a Mercedes, struck her with the car while trying to flee. Traffic police later caught him, and officers found a bag of jewelry inside his vehicle.
Suspects from Omsk
All three suspects are from Omsk, a city in southwestern Siberia. The men, born in 1982 and 1994, and the 38-year-old woman had previous convictions for theft, according to police.
Investigators said the group devised the scheme after learning that a 44-year-old Yekaterinburg resident who had signed a contract with Russia's Defense Ministry had no relatives. They gained his trust and persuaded him to grant them power of attorney over his bank account, supposedly to protect his savings from theft, with the woman posing as his common-law wife.
Second victim identified
Police said another SVO participant fell victim to a similar scheme and had 2.7 million rubles stolen. A criminal case has been opened and the defendants have been placed in custody, according to the ministry.
