Women Accused of Marrying Russian Army Recruits to Claim Death Payouts
Russian officials say scammers are exploiting wartime death payments by arranging sham marriages that can leave relatives without compensation.
- In recent months, Russian authorities reported 'black widow' scams where women target soldiers for marriage before deployment to claim death benefits starting at 5 million rubles .
- Following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin actively promoted marriage to bolster family support, leading officials to facilitate speedy unions for newly enlisted soldiers.
- Maria discovered her 59-year-old father, Yury, married a woman 22 years his junior two days before deployment, allowing the stranger to become his legal next of kin and claim benefits.
- Soldier Georgy Kostyrko married Angelina Varyukhina 10 days after meeting online, though Varyukhina denied scamming allegations, calling accusations an attempt to "blacken" her reputation.
- Given catastrophically short life expectancy on the front lines, marrying a soldier is increasingly viewed as a financial strategy, with scammers targeting the $102,000 compensation package to resolve personal debts.
44 Articles
44 Articles
The Kremlin advertises with high compensation when soldiers fall on the Ukraine front, thus attracting fraudsters. In Russia, cases of so-called black widows are likely to increase massively.
In Russia there is growing anger about so-called "black widows". Women are said to have married soldiers just before the front line to collect high compensation.
The Special Military Operation (SVO), as Russians call the war in Ukraine, has brought a new phenomenon to Russia. The so-called black widows, gold diggers who marry newly recruited soldiers in order to collect compensation after their deaths, are suspected of cooperating with army officers who send their newlyweds on dangerous operations for a "commission".
The millions of indemnities paid by the Russian government to families of soldiers killed in the war in Ukraine have given rise to a new type of fraud that worries authorities and provokes outrage in the country. Called "black widows" by parliamentarians and the state press, women are accused of convincing vulnerable recruits to formalize marriages shortly before they are sent to the front to, if they die in combat, receive compensation for rela…
Women who identify and marry Russian soldiers just before they go to the front. The chances of death are high, and as compensation for the departure arrives 5 million rubles. To make the expenses are the family members of the victims, who lose the compensation. The phenomenon of the "black places" is spreading more and more in Russia, reaching "serious proportions"
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