Across Russia, authorities are reporting a troubling pattern of scams in which individuals disguise themselves as police officers to credibly trap and steal from residents. In the Stavropol Territory, Essentuki saw a man lured out of the city by someone claiming to be a police officer. The encounter ended with the victim being assaulted and robbed, prompting a swift police response and detentions as investigations continue.
A 41-year-old Essentuki resident filed a complaint with law enforcement. He recounted that a stranger, presenting himself as a police officer, stopped him on a street and asked him to get into the other man’s car to go to a police facility. The encounter did not stay within city limits; the assailant led the victim away from Essentuki, struck him in the face several times, and took his mobile phone as part of the assault and theft.
In a chilling turn, the attacker used the victim’s phone to access the mobile banking app and secured a loan of 24 thousand rubles, transferring the funds to the assailant’s account. The perpetrator was eventually detained; prosecutors identified him as a 24-year-old resident of the village of Suvorovskaya and confirmed that a case had been opened on theft.
Earlier reporting described a separate incident in Khabarovsk where a man dressed in a police uniform faked authority to help a friend resolve debts. A local resident had a dispute with a tenant paying for a house. The impersonator enlisted his 29-year-old roommate, who had purchased a Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs uniform, to confront the tenant in an attempt to settle the matter.
There have also been reports of another pattern involving groups who identify themselves as officers. In St. Petersburg, a passerby was allegedly kidnapped for ransom by three individuals who had claimed to be police officers, illustrating the broader risk of uniformed impersonation being used to intimidate and coerce.