1/ Did Wagner mercenaries execute one of their own men and try to extort the wrong set of relatives to sell the corpse back to them? The story of Sergei Serbezov suggests that Wagner's recruitment of criminals is leading to more crimes against their own side. Thread follows. ⬇️
2/ Serbezov is a Ukrainian citizen who was sentenced in 2020 to 9 years and 9 months' imprisonment for drugs offences. He was put in the IK-10 penal colony in Saratov oblast in south-west Russia.
3/ According to Serbezov's wife, IK-10 was visited by Wagner Group recruiters after the war started. They told the prisoners that they were being forcibly mobilised "whether they wanted to or not". If true, this is unusual, as Wagner seems to have relied on volunteers elsewhere.
4/ Serbezov phoned his wife on 28 September to say that he was being taken to the front line. She said that he told her that he was given an ultimatum: "either he would go in handcuffs, or he would be beaten right there on the spot".
5/ On 15 October, Serbezov's wife received an anonymous text message saying that he had been shot as a deserter. The message purported to be from someone on an 'official' contract, "unlike those like Sergei".
6/ An exchange of messages followed between the message's author and Serbezov's sister, in which the author demanded that she pay $1,000 for information on where the body was buried.
7/ The unidentified author (A) wrote to Serbezov's sister (S):
(A) I can assure you that the information is reliable. It can't be a mistake, one of the members of the consolidated unit in which Sergei was a member identified him.
8/ They gathered [together] convicts from the same colony for more effective interaction ... Either the body stays here, or you take it yourself. At the moment, the body is located in a field hospital. I can't name the exact location for the safety of personnel.
9/ Reports on the dead are already compiled. As you understand, deserters and looters will be buried in a mass grave without military honours.
10/ (S) Well then, we'll find out everything through enquiries, but you won't get away with asking for $1,000 without having the right to do so. You want to make money off people's grief.
11/ (A) You will find your Sergei ten years after the archaeological excavations.
(S) And you wonder how long you will be free after [this] extortion?
(A) Contact anyone you want, even the president. We're not here, you should know.
12/ After the matter was publicised, RIA FAN – a 'news' outlet associated with Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin – published a proof-of-life style video of Serbezov telling his wife that he was "doing well" and that claims of his death were "bullshit".
13/ "It's me, Sergei Mikhailovich Serbezov, your husband. It's all right, everything's fine, don't believe any rumours, listen to what I've told you. Only after you see me and talk to me can you make any conclusions."
14/ This curious affair highlights a few things:
🔺 It's been documented previously that Wagner has a policy of shooting deserters. Did they shoot someone else and misidentify that person as Serbezov?
15/ 🔺 Selling the bodies of dead convicts back to their relatives could be a potentially lucrative racket. Has this happened anywhere else, or is this an isolated incident?
16/ 🔺 The very quick response to Serbezov's family's complaints suggests that whoever was behind this scheme wasn't authorised by Wagner's leadership. It also shows Wagner's interest in maintaining a 'clean' image, in contrast to the overt corruption of the Russian army.
17/ 🔺 The unknown texter – who's more likely than not to be a Wagner member – commented that men from the same prison colony are kept together for more effective unit cohesion. This is likely to mean that Wagner has imported prison gang structures into its units.
18/ This makes some sense from a cohesion and discipline point of view – gangs have their own hierarchies which could map roughly onto military hierarchies – but it most likely means that Wagner convict units are literally armed gangs, rather than professional, trained soldiers.
1/ More than 100 Russian convicts are being sent to the war in Ukraine from a prison colony in Kemerovo oblast, according to independent Russian media outlet Verstka, despite relatives' attempts to stop them enlisting with the Wagner PMC. Translation follows. ⬇️
2/ "Relatives of the convicts who are trying to ensure that the "volunteers" are not sent to the front told "Verstka" about the recruitment of prisoners in the colony IK-44 in Belovo.
3/ According to them, a PMC representative visited the colony on 28 October. The "man in camouflage" made a short speech and asked those "who want to go to war" to write applications.
1/ Russian targeting of power infrastructure in Ukraine has expanded to systematically hit open switchgear associated with hydroelectric power stations and the boilers of thermal power plants, in an attempt to reduce overall resilience, according to the Rybar Telegram channel. ⬇️
2/ In a series of posts, Rybar analyses the impact of today's missile strikes. It comments that the aim of the attacks was "to deprive the enemy of the opportunity to compensate for the energy deficit" resulting from previous attacks. The targets included:
3/ 💥 An open switchgear of the Kaniv hydroelectric power station in the Cherkasy region.
Rybar comments: "The hydroelectric power station is located on the middle reaches of the Dnipro, helps to compensate for the energy shortage in the Kyiv region ...
1/ With the dismissal of Colonel-General Aleksandr Lapin as the commander of Russia's Central Military District, ugly stories are emerging about his treatment of mobilised soldiers. He's said to have put his pistol to the head of a lieutenant and threatened to shoot him. ⬇️
2/ Mediazona reports that on 13 October, Lapin violently confronted Lieutenant Dmitry Vodnev, who withdrew his company from shelling at the village of Kolomyichykha, near Svatove in Luhansk oblast. The back story has emerged from the account of another soldier published by SOTA.
3/ Like many other mobiks, Vodnev's men were not given a medical examination or combat training after being mobilised into the 423rd Yampolsky motorized rifle regiment around 22 September. They were given only 1 day's shooting practice at a military camp in Belgorod.
1/ Russian investigators believe the high-speed crash of an Su-30SM fighter jet in Irkutsk on 23 October may have been due to the aircraft's oxygen system malfunctioning, causing the two crew members to suffer a fatal case of hypoxia. Thread ⬇️
2/ Media reports say that the Eastern Interregional Investigation Department for Transport of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has opened a criminal case for "violation of the rules of traffic safety and operation of air transport" based on early findings.
3/ According to the investigators, the aircraft's oxygen system most likely malfunctioned, causing a lack of oxygen, an excess of it, or accidental contamination of the oxygen with nitrogen. This could have caused the two-man crew to both lose consciousness at the same time.
1/ Was corruption implicated in Russia's failure to detect the truck that exploded on the Kerch Bridge to Crimea on 8 October? Reports in the Russian media – and the actions of the Russian government – suggest that all was not well in the bridge's management. Thread ⬇️
2/ Following the explosion, President Putin fired the deputy head of the Ministry of Transport, Alexander Sukhanov. He was responsible for transport security, including of the Crimean bridge. Putin has now reportedly transferred this responsibility to the FSB.
3/ The FSB has not escaped censure. Vlasti reports that Viktor Gavrilov, head of the FSB's T Directorate, was removed from his post. His directorate is responsible for security coverage of transport facilities. He was reportedly replaced by Sergey Demyanishnikov (pictured).