Russia: a woman approached outside a bakery while out with her son was told a curse had been laid on the boy, and paid 176,437 roubles to have it lifted

Proceedings

1. 2026-01-27 · conviction and sentence at first instance

   Naberezhnye Chelny City Court, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia (Набережночелнинский городской суд). The defendant, anonymised in the published judgment, was convicted of fraud by deception causing significant damage under part 2 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and sentenced to one year six months' deprivation of liberty, suspended under part 3 of article 73 with a two-year probation period and obligations to register and report. The court found that she approached the victim outside a bakery-canteen while the victim was there with her son, 'under the pretext of removing a curse, reliably knowing that she did not possess such abilities', and told them 'that a curse had been laid on' the boy 'which had to be removed', and that she, supposedly possessing such abilities, could assist in removing it from the victim's son. The victim, misled as to those abilities, agreed and arranged to meet the following day at an agreed time and place, attending with her own mother, who the judgment records was unaware of the defendant's criminal intentions. The total loss was 176,437 roubles 79 kopeks, which the judgment records as significant for the victim.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• an approach made to a mother while she was out with her son
• the assertion that a curse had been laid on the child
• an offer to assist in removing it, arranged over a further meeting the following day