KOSTROMA, February 16 (RIA Novosti) - A young Russian mother was given a 19-month suspended sentence after she decided to set fire to a local kindergarten, local prosecutors said on Friday.
According to sources in Central Russia’s Kostroma Region Police Department, quoted by to the local K1News portal, the woman needed a pretext for staying at home and looking after her son instead of searching for a job.
The woman was found guilty of inciting a minor to commit a crime and deliberately destroy property.
An investigation revealed that the woman from the village of Furovo, aged 21, offered 2,000 rubles (about $66) to a 17-year-old teen for setting fire to the village’s only facility where her child could be looked after while she was at work.
“She had a dispute with her husband, who asked her to send their child to a kindergarten and start looking for a job. So she decided to set the facility on fire. If her plan had succeeded… she would have had a pretext for staying at home like she did before,” K1News said.
The kindergarten was set ablaze on July 6, 2012. However, the wooden building was saved by a local resident, who spotted the fire.
