Russia's debt collectors turn violent as recession leaves 11.5m in debt

Source: Guardian UK

Sergei has watched in horror as Russian television has been flooded with reports about vicious debt collectors terrorising households in order to recover overdue loans.

In December, the 29-year-old from the south-western city of Voronezh became one of 11.5 million Russians to fall behind on loan payments. In January authorities said a debt collector threw a firebomb through an apartment window - badly burning a child
But despite owing just £230, Sergei says that he and others have been hounded by bailiffs demanding the money be repaid.

Dubbed “vultures of the crisis”, overzealous debt collectors have shot to prominence – a byproduct of a prolonged recession fuelled by the collapse of world oil prices and compounded by western sanctions.

But concern has been growing over their increasingly violence methods. On 27 January authorities in the city of Ulyanovsk said a collector chasing down a 4,000-rouble (£35) debt threw a firebomb through a debtor’s apartment window, badly burning a two-year-old boy. The event caused a national uproar. In December, in the southern Rostov region, police with sniffer dogs and bomb-disposal technicians evacuated a kindergarten after a teacher who owed money was told the premises would be blown up unless she paid.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/10/russias-debt-collectors-turn-violent-as-recession-leaves-115m-in-debt