Zenit footballer traumatised as abduction conspiracy uncovered in Russia

Martin Macdonald

• 30 Oct 2025 08:01 CDT
• 4 min read

Nieuws

Zenit St. Petersburg star Andrei Mostovoy has told how he was the victim of an attempted kidnapping which was part of a larger abduction conspiracy in Russia.

On the evening of 23 October, Mostovoy attempted to get into his Mercedes after shopping at a local grocery story.

Three masked men approached and grabbed him, attempting to bundle him into a nearby van.

Luckily for Mostovoy, his friend - former hockey player Alexander Grakun - was on hand to pull him free and push the kidnappers away, allowing the pair to run free into a woodland area.

You can see footage of the incident below:

On the night of October 23 in St. Petersburg, Andrey Mostovoy became subject of an attempted kidnapping He managed to fight them off with help of hockey player Grakun
2 days later, son-in-law of State Duma deputy was kidnapped
Suspects have been detained
(https://t.co/IQuCju8qj3) pic.twitter.com/o9s8bGs0vb

— RPL Sky (@RPLNews_eng) October 27, 2025

The 27-year-old waited a while to contact the police to report the incident as he was so shaken by what happened.

"Unfortunately, I can't say anything right now because there's an ongoing investigation and I can't reveal everything," the Russian told Championat.

"It was evening, late, everything happened so quickly... I didn't really have time to process what was happening, and only later did I realise it was quite serious. And I seemed to behave normally, in the sense that I didn't panic or call everyone. I waited until the morning, that's all.

"Of course, I was so shocked that something like this could still happen in this day and age. After the incident, I was in contact with a friend; it was hard to fall asleep, I didn't really get any sleep.

"I didn't tell anyone anything, I decided it was best to wait it out. Not my family, no one knew about it. And only the next morning did I contact our security from the club, and then this whole process began.

"No one knew about it at all. It happened yesterday, so it turns out, in the morning. I started getting a lot of calls, text messages, all sorts of TV channels.

"They called, wanting to know, but I decided, once again, not to contact anyone. I was waiting for the go-ahead, for the club to tell me what to do.

"Yesterday, it turned out, there was a lot of support from the guys and from outside. Until today, no one knew about it except my friend, who was involved in the incident."

Zenit have since increased security around their players.

A large criminal plot

Investigators linked the attack to a wider kidnapping plot which was subsequently taken down by local authorities and the Federal Security Service (FSB).

Just two days after the attack on Mostovoy, the criminals abducted the son-in-law of State Duma deputy Vyacheslav Makarov, demanding 10 million rubles (£95,000) as a ransom.

Investigators discovered that the gang had been put together through messages on Telegram.

Young men around the age of 19 and 20 have been targeted to make quick money by carrying out these crimes.

They have allegedly been recruited by a non-Russian who uses the handle 'Satanist' on Telegram.

Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB have since arrested the men who attempted to abduct Mostovoy and who did abduct Makarov, but the mastermind behind the plot, 'Satanist' is still at large.