Anton Maltsev who is an ex-member of Russia’s Special Forces and a Kosovo War veteran recently got pardoned for turning his Moscow apartment into a veritable forces chuck. The apartment is full of traps, firearms and a titanium exoskeleton. All the weaponry he has is used to fight off the debt collectors that visit his apartment.
His story came up on the international media when military bomb disposal was called to break into his apartment since debt collectors were under attack by a pepper-spray when they entered on their own. When the experts entered the apartment, they found many tripwire traps, reinforced doors, an AK47, several semi-automatic firearms, numerous pistols, a grenade launcher, and almost eight kilos of explosives. Among everything, the most amazing thing was the home-made exoskeleton which was made up of titanium plates and aluminum. It also featured a bullet-proof helmet and vest. This development of his made him famous as the nickname “Russian Iron Man.”
Later on, it was discovered that Maltsev had turned his apartment into a fort in order to fight off debt collectors. The Chechen and Kosovo war veteran took a real estate loan from Rosebank. But there came a time when he was unable to make his monthly payments. After that, the debt collectors from the bank started visiting him. Initially, he was dealing with only verbal threats but later on, they started ambushing Maltsev. The collectors poured glue into the keyhole of his apartment door, broke his mailbox, and scared him to make his loan payment. At one point, the threats turned so bad that Maltsev started fearing for his family’s safety. He moved his wife to a rented apartment and started to arm himself.
After some time, he became successful to completely turned his apartment into an armory which has reinforced doors and tripwire-activated traps. He told after his arrest, “One day my patience dried up – the debt collectors moved from words to deeds and broke my mailbox. I hid my wife in a rented apartment in Moscow and began to arm myself, just in case. I still wanted to live.”
Maltsev’s wife left him after she couldn’t cope up with the constant harassment. His debt to Rosebank reached $118000 and the bank decided to sell his apartment and evacuate his house to cover for its loss. But, to make him leave his house, they first had to get inside the house. The bank even made use of sledgehammers to enter the house. Since he replaced his old door with a fallout shelter, so the banging was not going to work for the debt collectors. That was the point when bomb disposal experts were called to break into the house.
After the bomb disposal squad entered the apartment, they notified the local police immediately who arrested him soon. The ex-soldier was charged with arms trafficking. However, the judge pardoned him after the report from psychologists and psychiatrists concluded that he had been suffering from a paranoia caused by debt collectors harassment. He is still undergoing treatment for his condition. Maltsev’s attorney said that his client could neither be found guilty nor innocent since he was unaware of what he was doing at that time.
The exoskeleton that he made earned him the nickname “Russian Iron Man”. Anton Maltsev said that his Iron Suit was going to give him an advantage over debt collectors. He said, “Finding weapons and bulletproof vests is not a problem in the modern world, however, the numerical superiority of the bandits dictated another solution, after all, they could come themselves wearing vests and armed with rifles. I decided that the cheapest way (to protect myself) was to make a protective exoskeleton, together with silenced weapons. The suit could take away their advantage. To create it, I used aluminum and titanium, plus a little steel. It was most difficult to find titanium plates for the exoskeleton.”
The exoskeleton was a part of the evidence in Maltsev’s trial but it will be destroyed soon.
