Russian women are taking advantage of the conflict created by Putin by marrying soldiers who are put in harm’s way and then receiving a sum of £73,000 as compensation once the soldiers are killed, a lawyer has shared.
Marina Orlova detailed the shocking scheme to target single Russian soldiers and wed them before they are sent to the front line.
In a podcast, a lawyer and an estate agent have claimed that these women are marrying soldiers with the hope that they will die in the war in Ukraine, allowing them to collect the compensation amount.
Orlova said that the schemers are then using the money to buy flats and get on the property ladder.
“It’s easy and simple,” she told influencer Darya Cherdantseva in the podcast episode that went viral.
She added: “You find a man now who is serving [for Russia in the war], he dies, and you get 8 million rubles (£73,100).
“A lot of people are doing it now. A lot of women come to us with this 8 million, buy some cheap flat.
“It’s a working scheme. It’s a business plan.”
During the podcast, it was also mentioned that these widows are encouraged to find another soldier to marry, potentially enabling them to receive a second payout due to the high number of Russian casualties in the conflict.
Russia’s Investigative Committee and Prosecutor General’s Office was quick to step in and criticise these comments.
The podcast was subsequently deleted.
While the pair insisted that this was merely “black humour”, Orlova could face up to seven years in jail under Putin’s laws.
After the podcast went viral, some Russians took to the social network VK to explain that they know women who have put this “business plan” into practice.
“We have a lot of those,” said one user, Galina, who explained that her brother had suddenly married — suspiciously — before going to the war.
“My brother also signed right before leaving, they just brought him in, he hadn’t been buried yet, and his supposedly fake wife was already running around the offices to arrange the money,” she said.
A widow asked on VK: “Will I be entitled to payments in the event of his death, if I already received them for my first husband in 2022?”
Anastasia Marinina commented: “What a nightmare. Where is the world heading?
“Didn’t she get enough for the first one, and she’s probably sending the second one herself?
“My brother died at 22, and his wife goes to his grave every week.
“She doesn’t even think about others. I have no words.”
Independent journalist Andrey Kalitin said: “This is probably what absolute fall into the abyss looks like.”
Putin’s prosecutors intervened after the pro-Putin cultural group, Call of the People, demanded action.
The claims flouted “morality and humanity”, said the group’s leader Sergei Zaitsev.
“Her cynical and blasphemous statements about a ‘business plan’ based on the deaths of our servicemen are an insult to everyone who is risking their lives on the front lines today, defending our Motherland.
“This is an insult to the memory of fallen heroes and their families,” Zaitsev said.
Orlova made a public apology later today, saying: “I apologise for myself personally and I apologise even for Daria.
“In no way did I mean to offend anyone.”
She added: “The bullying has started, of course. I get so many threats from men.”
This comes after recent news that pregnant Russian schoolgirls will be able to cash in almost £1,000 under a bizarre scheme to boost the country’s birth rate.
The state money for underage pregnancies is being piloted in Oryol region, which has seen a population slump of almost 8,000 people.
