Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Scammers claiming to be 'forensic experts' are reported to be conning hundreds of thousands of dollars from relatives of dead and missing Russian soldiers, to 'identify' their loved ones from heavily pixelated images released by Ukrainian sources. ⬇️

2/ The Russian warblogger and journalist Anastasia Kashevarova reports on the latest scam affecting relatives, who have been plagued by an entire industry of fake mediums, astrologers and other frauds who claim to be able to track down the missing and dead:

3/ "Independent experts profit from the families of the missing and killed, confirming for money that their fighter is theirs using blurry, faceless photos. The attached photos, or simply blurry pixels, are photos from forensic examinations used to identify the fighters.

4/ "For a certain fee, experts will confirm that this is your fighter in captivity by looking at his hands, one ear, a completely bandaged face, or a fingernail. Even in an African or Asian, they will find a 99% match with a blue-eyed Russian soldier.

5/ "This isn't just unprofessionalism or a technical error; it's outright fraud. When it's obvious to the naked eye that the person in the photos and videos is someone else.

6/ "Relatives turn to fraudulent experts to be deceived, because living in uncertainty and accepting reality is difficult, and for some, physically unbearable.

7/ "There are many such "experts" who profit from the grief-stricken relatives of our military personnel, but we most often encounter the expert opinions of the STELS Forensic Research Institute in Chelyabinsk.

8/ "All of the institute's reports we've seen are signed by only three experts: the general director of this autonomous non-profit organisation and limited liability company (which is not a government agency), Alexander Yuryevich Vlasov;…

9/ …Alexander Alexandrovich Vlasov (apparently the son of the chief expert); and Natalya Vitalyevna Malina (a journalist with a background in higher education). Judging by the number of these documents we receive, these experts are working 24/7.

10/ "And this is despite the fact that we clearly only receive a small fraction of their reports.

The head of STELS, Alexander Vlasov, is a professor at the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. Not to be confused with the Russian Academy of Sciences.

11/ "The Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RANH) is a public organisation, not a state scientific institution, so the title of "RANH Professor" has no official status and is not considered on par with academic titles awarded by the state certification commission.

12/ "An expert opinion on whether a missing soldier resembles a prisoner in a photograph or video is quite expensive – 30,000 rubles [$378]. Funds are primarily transferred to the RANH account, but there are also examples of transfers made to individuals by phone number.

13/ "First, there's a preliminary assessment, which is free and informs you that the photo match is 80-85-90 percent. If you need a certified report, you'll have to pay.

14/ "Incidentally, the RANH's revenue doubled in 2024 compared to 2023. Compared to 2022, the success is truly astounding. In 2022, the RANH earned 144,000 rubles [$1,817]. And in 2024, it's already earned over 8 million [$100,952]. Data for 2025 is not yet publicly available.

15/ "I understand there are certain methods, expert certification, and licensing for such activities. But let's be honest—all these comparisons and comparisons only work in theory.

16/ "In practice, they manage to find a 90 percent match based on three pixels or a photo where half the prisoner's head is in a bag.

17/ "There have even been cases where families sent photographs of fighters from exchanges for verification, and their relatives were definitely not among them, but forensic analysis confirmed that it was 99 percent certain they were.

18/ "The consequences of such activities are horrific. Families live for years under the illusion that their fighter is in captivity. They refuse to believe otherwise, even knowing that there is no evidence of capture other than this forensic analysis.

19/ "For years, they storm the military registration and enlistment office and military unit, demanding that they be officially recognized as prisoners of war.

20/ "Such examinations ensure several things at once (besides the well-being of their leaders): an inappropriate workload for government agencies, nervous exhaustion for relatives (some of them, after the examination results, stop believing that they have buried their soldier),…

21/ …and growing dissatisfaction with the command of military units due to their refusal to recognize missing and dead soldiers as prisoners." /end

Source:
t.me/akashevarova/8…