A Russian woman in St Petersburg has alleged that her father’s marriage shortly before deployment left his new wife eligible for compensation after his death in the war in Ukraine.
Maria, 37, said her 59-year-old father Yuri had joined the Russian military without telling his family.
She said he married two days before he was sent to the front.
Maria said the military told her that the new wife was Yuri’s legal next of kin after his death.
She said she had never met the woman and suspected the marriage had been arranged to obtain the payment.
Families or legal heirs of Russian service members killed in the war are stated to receive a one-off payment of at least 5 million rubles.
Russian officials and state media have described alleged schemes involving women who marry vulnerable or newly enlisted men and seek compensation after their deaths.
A nurse at a military hospital was accused of marrying injured service members, and was dismissed from her job, though the accounts differ on the number of men involved.
A real-estate agent and a programme host in Tomsk were ordered to perform community service and apologise publicly after comments promoting marriage to a deployed service member for potential compensation.
Separate allegations in Primorsky Krai said military personnel arranged marriages for isolated men and then sent them to dangerous combat areas in order to share possible payouts.
No final result of an official investigation into the Primorsky Krai allegations was stated.
Russia encouraged new service members to marry and relaxed marriage-age rules after the full-scale war began in 2022.
Lawmaker Leonid Slutsky called for stronger measures to protect military families from fraudsters seeking financial gain.