Media: Hundreds of Russians found in DPR prisons
In the prisons, penal colonies and pre-trial detention centers in the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), there are hundreds of Russians who took part in the armed conflict in the Donbas on the militia’s side, according to an article in Novaya Gazeta.
The news outlet cites various estimates of the number of Russian citizens being held in prisons. A DPR armed forces officer told Novaya that in four years, more than 480 Russians have been arrested. Some of them are even charged with spying for Russia. Roughly 150 are currently being held in pre-trial detention centers.
According to international law, any militiaman can be considered a criminal.
“Between spring and autumn 2014, we had complete chaos, field commanders requisitioned for the front’s needs, and often for themselves personally, any cars and other property they took a fancy to. In the best case, they gave receipts drawn on the knee. Battalion commanders excised tribute from all commercial entities in the territory controlled by them, from stalls and hairdressers to mines and metallurgy plants. Hundreds of thousands of refugees left, leaving homes and apartments. Russian militiamen who needed a place to stay settled in them,” the soldier recounted.
The DPR was a complete mess with weaponry at the time, he claims.
“They were even selling and buying armored infantry vehicles. Many, especially those who were on the front, grew accustomed to lawlessness. And when they started to get in trouble, they were surprised. But there was a turn in the other direction: you can’t prosecute those who have been fighting according to peacetime laws!” he explained.
A source in the Union of Donbas Volunteers said that there are now more than 500 Russians in the DPR’s prisons. “The Russian authorities are not doing anything to have our citizens released. They are outside of the law. The moment these boys crossed the [Russian-Ukrainian] border, they were simply flushed down the toilet,” he added.
Russian Publicist Roman Manekin, who was abducted himself on two occasions, said in 2017 that he possessed a list of 300 Russian citizens who were being held in the republic’s pre-trial detention centers. “The list only had call signs, and so I can’t assert that the total number of prisoners is exactly 300. When it comes to the charges, the most serious cases involve killing civilians. In such cases, the DPR criminal code prescribes the death penalty. As for those charged with serious crimes in the DPR, as a rule, none of them admit their guilt,” he emphasized.
Novaya Gazeta notes that those close to the imprisoned Russians have been sending requests for assistance to the Russian Foreign Ministry, but it cannot help them there. If the people were in Kyiv-controlled territory, Moscow would be able to offer consular services. Since they were arrested in the self-declared republic, such a method is not possible. In the DPR courts, they respond to all complaints by suggesting that they be redirected to the Minsk commission on the resolution of the conflict in the Donbas.
Sources in Russian intelligence told the news outlet that the relevant people are aware of the problem, but do not plan to deal with it. “These people are not needed in Russia! For several years already, the topic of the Donbas has been artificially suppressed. And the ‘heroes’ who have come with real combat experience, with blood up to their ears, know how it really was – a growth medium for criminal and protest attitudes,” the sources explained.
“The DPR authorities have been given a tacit instruction to hold onto everyone they can. Even for a lifetime. These boys either have to rot in the Donbas, or, joining Wagner (the so-called Wagner private military company), to disappear silently to Syria,” the intelligence source emphasized.
The news outlet published the names of three Russian citizens behind bars in the DPR: 21 year-old native of the Rostov province Apanasov Vladimir Vitalyevich, who fought between March and November 2015; 30 year-old Kotov Kirill Mikhailovich from Penza, and 24 year-old Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky native Naumov Kirill Sergeevich, who served in the Vostok division in 2015-2016, and has been sentenced to seven and a half years of imprisonment