Pardoned by Putin: the crimes committed by "pardoned" individuals who returned from the war against Ukraine

 

The publication "Verstka" investigated Russian court documents and found that in 2023, at least 190 criminal cases were initiated against mercenaries from the so-called private mercenary army "Wagner", pardoned by Russian President Putin. Among them are 20 cases of murder or attempted murder, as well as rape, robbery, drug-related crimes, and other criminal offenses.

 

These are the prominent cases from April 2024:

Dismembered

Last weekend it became known that a mercenary of the private military company "Wagner", who returned from the war, killed and dismembered the sister of his roommate in the town of Mikilske, Tosnensky district, Leningrad region, Russia.

As "Fontanka" reports, 42-year-old Alexey Serov came to the Leningrad Region to earn money after returning from Ukraine in the summer of last year. He went to war from a prison in Udmurtia, where he served a 12-year sentence for murder (Article 111, Part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, inflicted grievous bodily harm that caused death).

On the night of April 21, Serov was detained in the apartment of the sister of a 47-year-old resident of St. Petersburg whom he killed. A suitcase with human remains was found with the detainee. The arrested man admitted to killing and dismembering the victim after a family dispute. Serov strangled the victim, and when she stopped breathing, he went to a nearby hardware store, where he bought a saw and a suitcase on wheels. Then he drank vodka and dismembered the corpse.

Child torture

On April 2, it was announced that the investigation into the criminal case of Oleksija H., who returned from the war against Ukraine, was completed in the Samara Region. He lured the neighbor's nine-year-old girl into his house, inviting her to eat ice cream, and then covered her mouth with a cloth and started beating her. As the Baza Telegram channel reports, he held her by the hair and hit her head on the floor, then dragged the girl into the bathroom, poured water on her and continued to beat the victim.

The victim managed to escape. The girl was diagnosed with multiple cuts, bruises, bleeding and bruising.

 

Oleksij H. went from prison to the front, where he was serving a sentence for inflicting serious bodily injuries with fatal consequences. Six months later, he was pardoned by the decree of Vladimir Putin, because he agreed to fight against Ukraine. Now his new crime will soon go to court.

 

He shot

In Surgut, on April 4, in the yard of his own house, in front of his relatives, businessman Arsen Daudov was killed. The police found out that it was brought in by local resident Abdul Zakakov, a master of sports in combat shooting, who was sentenced to 9.5 years in prison in 2019 for robbery.

It is not known exactly when he was released, since he was recruited from prison into the private mercenary army "Wagner", but, according to local media, after the conquest of Bakhmut, Zakavov received Putin's pardon and returned to Surgut.

He went to war again on April 10, but was detained after committing a murder.

 

Attacked a girl and wanted to kill her

On April 5, it became known that the attacker of the four women, Samedov, recruited by the private mercenary army "Wagner", returned from the war and received a new sentence for the attempted murder of the girl.

In July 2020, he beat four women and robbed three in the town of Surovikino in just over an hour, writes Verstka. For the attacks, he used bottles and stones, with which he beat his victims, if they fell - he took their money and phones. Also, in 2013, Samedov was convicted of rape and violent acts committed with severe damage to health or extreme cruelty. The text of this judgment has not been published.

On February 21, 2023, Samedov, who was pardoned for participating in the war, in a drunken state, decided to go on a date with an 18-year-old girl who rejected him, according to the court verdict. When she refused, Samedov attacked her and stabbed her at least five times in the body, neck and face, and then ran away. He was arrested a few days later. He explained his act as "a consequence of the war" and drunkenness. As mitigating circumstances, the Russian court took into account the participation in the war, the presence of state awards and recognitions of the private mercenary army "Wagner", as well as a positive characteristic from the "League for the Protection of the Interests of Veterans". He received six years in prison.

Rape of a nine-year-old girl

A month ago, Andrej Frolov, a former mercenary of the private mercenary army "Wagner", was detained in Kurgan. Criminal proceedings were initiated against 34-year-old Frolov for the rape of a nine-year-old girl, a second-grade student.

Andrej Frolov, according to the report of the Investigative Committee, was repeatedly convicted of rape, murder, kidnapping, insulting the police and driving while drunk.

. In November 2022, while serving another prison sentence, he signed a contract with the private mercenary army "Wagner" and went to war in Ukraine. Six months later, in May 2023, he returned after receiving a presidential pardon.

On March 22, 2024, he was detained on suspicion of raping a nine-year-old girl.

 

According to Sibir.Realia's interlocutor, Frolov threatened his neighbors that in the event of a conflict "he could kill, because he was fighting".

"Hero SVO" is a serial pedophile

Sibir.Reali wrote in March that the murderer and pedophile from Novosibirsk was released because he "killed several more people in Ukraine."

Polina Semyanova, the ex-wife of Nikita Semyanova, a participant in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, wrote on the VKontakte social network that he seduced her when she was 13 years old.

She decided to do so after she found out that her ex-husband is free and that he regularly visits schools as a "hero of SVO" and that he communicates freely with children.

Several more of his victims and eyewitnesses to the crime confirmed to Sibiru.Realii that Simjanov "had sexual relations with 13-15-year-old girls" and that he beat his daughter from his first marriage.

On March 21, it became known that in Kamchatka, a former convict (according to Baz, 32-year-old Nikita S.), who returned from the war, took a woman hostage in his apartment. According to Baza, "he walked around the rooms with a knife at her throat and refused to let go of his victim." He was previously convicted of causing serious injury to health. He was later arrested.

After the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine, Russia began to massively recruit prisoners from the colonies and send them to the front. Until the spring of 2023, they were employed in the private mercenary army of Yevgeny Prigozhin "Wagner". Then they started to conclude contracts with the "Storm Z" unit, which is directly subordinated to the Ministry of Defense. In addition, former prisoners who went through the war in Ukraine began to be hired by the Russian Guard.

As of 2022, the mercenaries of the private mercenary army "Wagner" were pardoned and released in exchange for six months of participation in hostilities in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin signed pardon decrees.

In January, the Russian BBC announced that Russian prisoners who went to fight against Ukraine, instead of being pardoned by President Vladimir Putin, are now receiving parole and must serve under the contract until the end of the war.

In Russia, reports of repeated crimes committed after a pardon for participation in the war against Ukraine have been coming regularly since the second half of 2022, when the private mercenary army "Wagner" first began recruiting prisoners. Including repeated murders and rapes.

Courts are more loyal to "SVO participants", in more than half of the cases they impose lighter sentences. On April 10, Sota wrote that in Transbaikalia, ex-prisoners, who were pardoned by Putin for participating in the war, robbed a locomotive depot and received a suspended sentence: the court took

into account that they were winners of state awards and sentenced each of them to three years of probation.