"It's Putin's fault, he released the bastard"

"It's Putin's fault, he released the bastard"

Many are believed to have died in Ukraine, but those who survived six months earned a presidential pardon and are now returning to their hometowns, only to spread terror in them again, as Blic quotes the British Guardian.

One such example is the return of Georgi Siyukayev, a convicted murderer who was recruited from prison last year. Last Monday, he killed 38-year-old Soslan Valiyev, nicknamed "Tzugri", in the capital of Tskhinvali, in South Ossetia in Georgia, who was a beloved member of the local community.

A video of the killing was even posted on the Telegram channel, showing a man chasing and beating another man before stabbing him to death.

Suspect Siyukayev was arrested in the meantime.

According to figures presented by the leader and founder of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, more than 5,000 criminals have already been released, fueling fears that ex-convicts will continue to commit crimes.

Tzugri's murder is not the first alleged crime by pardoned ex-prisoners from the ranks of Wagner. At the end of March, pensioner Yulia Buiskic (85) was killed in her house in Novi Burec in the Kirov region, about 950 km east of Moscow. The perpetrator, 28-year-old Ivan Rosomakhin, was already a repeat offender when he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder in 2020. He, too, was recruited by Wagner and recently returned to his hometown after fighting in Ukraine.

The news of his return deeply disturbed the small community of Novi Burec of several hundred people and led to a meeting of the city council, which was filmed by a local TV channel. At the meeting, police chief Vadim Varankin promised that the "problematic" Rosomakhin would be taken out of the city on March 28, but a day later the ex-convict entered the pensioner's house where, it is believed, he killed her with an axe.

"The state and personally (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and Prigozhin are to blame for Yulia's death and should be held personally accountable for it... They let a sick bastard into society," said an unnamed close relative of the pensioner.

The unnamed relative, as well as other family members who spoke to the "Observer", said they fear state reprisals for speaking out against Wagner, because earlier this year the Russian president signed a law that made public criticism of the Wagnerians or negative reporting about them a crime.

Prigozhin, a longtime Putin ally, has promised to help ex-convicts who have served their terms in Ukraine if they run into trouble with the law.

"The police should treat you with respect. If they are unreasonable… I will personally call and sort things out with the governors, etc. We will find a solution", he said recently to a group of ex-prisoners.

One of those ex-criminals is Alexei Savichev, who returned to his native Voronezh in southwestern Russia in March. Savichev (49), a convicted murderer, was recruited by Wagner last September. He fought for six months in Ukraine, first in the battles for Soledar and then, after its capture, for Bakhmut, around which bloody conflicts are still taking place.

Savichev admitted in an interview earlier this week that he killed and tortured "dozens" of Ukrainian prisoners of war. Back in Voronezh, Savichev said that he quickly spent the money he earned while at Wagner (about one million rubles or 11,000 euros) - and that he spent it "on alcohol and prostitutes."

"I was drinking non-stop, I finally gained freedom and a lot of money," he said.

Savichev told "Observer" that the Voronezh police would occasionally take him into custody for inappropriate behavior late at night. But each time they would let him go after he showed them some of the medals he received fighting in Ukraine, including the Presidential Medal of Valor that the Observer saw.

"The policemen treated me as a hero. I felt like I could get away with anything," he said, adding that officers called him over for tea to hear his stories while he was member of Wagner group.