The arson of a police vehicle in Dzerzhinsk is a criminal case on a charge of terrorism opened in late August 2026 in the Dzerzhinsk in Nizhny Novgorod Region. During the night of 25–26 August 2026, a twenty-year-old resident of Dzerzhinsk — an employee of a chain grocery store with no prior criminal record — set fire to a UAZ service vehicle in the guarded parking lot outside the building of Police Department No. 1 of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs Directorate for the City of Dzerzhinsk.[1][3][4]

Circumstances of the incident

During the night, a patrol unit brought two offenders to the department for the drawing up of reports; the patrol vehicle was left in the service parking lot outside the building.[4] The duty officer, watching CCTV cameras, noticed an unidentified individual attempting to set fire to the departmental vehicle: rags soaked in a flammable liquid were burning near the windshield and the hood.[1][4] Police officers ran out of the building: one knocked the burning rags to the ground and extinguished them, while another caught the fleeing perpetrator on a neighboring street and detained him.[1][3][4]

The detainee explained that he had received advance instructions via a messaging app from individuals who identified themselves as FSB officers: they had convinced him to take part in a "secret special operation to catch dangerous criminals" who were allegedly planning to flee in that vehicle.[3][4] Following his handlers' instructions, the young man had purchased flammable liquid and a lighter in advance, came to the police department, doused the rags with the liquid, threw them onto the hood of the patrol SUV, and set them alight.[3][4]

Criminal case and pre-trial measures

Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Nizhny Novgorod Region for the City of Dzerzhinsk opened a criminal case under Paragraph "a" of Part 2 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — a terrorist act, that is, arson carried out for the purpose of destabilizing the activities of the authorities, committed by a group of persons through prior conspiracy.[3][4] At the investigation's request, Dzerzhinsk City Court remanded the accused in custody until 25 October 2026 inclusive; the ruling had not entered into legal force at the time of publication.[3] Under this article, the accused faces up to twenty years' imprisonment.[1]

Sources

  1. Vremya N — A Dzerzhinsk resident faces 20 years in prison for setting a police car on fire (archive)
  2. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — A 20-year-old was detained for a terrorist act in Dzerzhinsk (archive)
  3. mvdmedia.ru — A grocery store employee detained for arson of a patrol vehicle outside a police department in Dzerzhinsk (archive)
  4. GTRK "Nizhny Novgorod" (Vesti) — In Dzerzhinsk, a young man suspected of committing a terrorist act has been remanded in custody