No Fewer than 66 People have Been Arrested for Attempted Sabotage Russian Railroads Since Putin Launched His Expanded War in Ukraine

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Apr. 13 – No fewer than 66 people have been arrested in more than 21 regions of the Russian Federation for attempting to sabotage rail traffic there in the year since Vladimir Putin launched his expanded invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Despite official claims, most appear to be the work of individuals rather than organizations.

            In a comprehensive report on this phenomenon for Zona.Media, journalist Dima Shvets reports that most of those detained are under 25 and as many as a third are minors, that at least two have been killed in the course of attempts to apprehend them, and that the numbers have risen dramatically over the last several months (zona.media/article/2023/04/13/sabotage).

            No trials in any of these cases have yet begun so more information may become available, but Russian officials have sought to portray these actions as the work of people linked to Ukraine and the West rather than being a form of indigenous Russian protest against the war in Ukraine.

            For the moment, Shvets’ 4300-word article is the most detailed and comprehensive available on this subject.