as much as I wish it were spontaneous, it seems organized (many cases happened right on the first day of elections; (nearly?) all of the perpetrators were women across like 5-10 cases that I've read about; they all immediately started taking photos as if to show proof to someone), it seems like either Russia or Ukraine is behind that (the former would want it to discredit the opposition, the latter to discredit the Russian state, either option sounds plausible to me). Of course, the Russian police says Ukraine-linked scammers promised money for doing it.

honestly with how much some scammers can achieve at times (I'd rather not say, I've seen some abhorrent cases in the news) I tend to believe the official Russian version