For the war in Ukraine, the Wagner mercenary group recruits tens of thousands of prisoners in Russian prisons. Of the few survivors, the first are now walking free again. Among them are ruthless murderers and a millionaire who had an entire family shot.
Stanislav Bogdanov survived. Somewhere in Donbass, he lost a leg when a shell from Ukrainian forces fell nearby. Now he’s sitting on a sofa with three comrades in a rehabilitation center in Crimea, about to receive a medal for “bravery” and, more importantly, his passport. Soon Bogdanov is a free man.
The 35-year-old is one of around 40,000 Russian prisoners, according to US estimates, who were recruited by the Wagner mercenary group for the war in Ukraine. Last Thursday, the head of the group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced that it had stopped recruiting prisoners. Bogdanov is also one of the few who returned alive from the front. He went to war when he hadn’t even served half his sentence. Bogdanov is a murderer.
Ten years ago, the 35-year-old was sentenced to 23 years in prison for “particularly cruel murder,” according to a report by the Ria Fan media outlet, which is owned by Prigozhin. Prigozhin makes no secret of the dark history of his fighters and promises them a pardon after their deployment in Ukraine – a promise that, according to the report, is now being kept. Accordingly, Bogdanov, like his comrades, who can be seen in a “Ria Fan” video, is free.
“I killed him. Sorry bro”
In September 2012, Bogdanov murdered a random acquaintance in Novgorod on impulse, who had previously invited him to his house for a drink. The 35-year-old described the act at the end of January in one Interview with the opposition medium “Holod”. Accordingly, Bogdanov first beat his victim – the young judge Sergei Zhiganov – with a poker, then he tortured the man for hours and finally killed him by dropping a heavy dumbbell three times on his head.
Stanislav Bogdanov tortured a random acquaintance for hours and then killed him with a dumbbell.
(Photo: Telegram)
Even more than ten years later, Bogdanov does not seem to regret his act. In the interview, he justified the murder by disliking law enforcement officers. According to him, judges would enjoy impunity: “You drive drunk, injure people and get away with it,” said Bogdanov. When the journalist noted that nothing of the sort was known about Zhiganov, the killer replied that he was “just getting started”. And asked back: “Who knows, maybe he raped little girls?”
Bogdanov was on duty in Ukraine for only eight days – then he was wounded, hospitalized and finally sent to the Crimean Rehab Tower. His life now feels like a “fairy tale”, says Bogdanow in an interview. According to him, he will continue to receive a monthly salary of 200,000 rubles – the equivalent of around 2,600 euros. Now he wants to start a new life, says Bogdanov: No more stealing, but earning money and building a house. And he also wants to visit the grave of his victim. “We didn’t get along and I killed him. ‘Sorry brother’ – I’ll tell him that.”
NGO: Nine out of ten prisoners die at the front
Bogdanov got a second chance. Many of his comrades were less fortunate. Like the Russian army, the Wagner group of mercenaries does not talk about their own losses. However, human rights activists assume that out of ten prisoners recruited, only one will survive the deployment in Ukraine. Ivan Astashin from the NGO “Solidarity Zone” gave this figure, citing a source in a prison in an interview Radio Liberty.
According to Astashin, some of the survivors have been identified as having participated in the torture of other prisoners in the penal camps together with guards. “These are people without any moral compass.” The human rights activist suspects that these prisoners are used in blocking units in Ukraine whose job it is to shoot deserters. Because of this, these very people would have a better chance of surviving.
Those who die in Ukraine are awarded posthumously. So it happens again and again that bad criminals are celebrated as heroes and buried with military honors. Like Sergey Molodzow, who killed his mother and was sentenced to more than eleven years in prison in 2017.
Funeral with military honors of Sergey Molodtsov who killed his mother.
(Photo: Telegram)
Or Vitaly Vasyagin: In the early 2000s he murdered his neighbor. In 2017, after serving his sentence, he strangled another woman, cut her throat and dumped her body in a compost pit. For this he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He also died in Ukraine and was buried with military honors.
Veteran’s killer to be ‘treated with respect’
Prigozhin celebrates his “boys” – and in return can count on their affection. Wounded combatants called their boss “our second father” when he visited them in a Crimean hospital in early January. Prigozhin’s “Ria Fan” also reported extensively on this meeting. Journalists from the Kremlin-critical medium “Agentstwo Novosti” were able to identify one of the men in the video as Dmitri Karjagin identify. In 2014, he used a hammer to murder his 87-year-old grandmother, a World War II veteran. In 2016 he was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison. After serving in Ukraine, he is now set to be released.
Dmitri Karyagin killed his grandmother, a World War II veteran, in 2014.
(Photo: Telegram)
In addition to medals for “bravery” and freedom, Prigozhin also promises his fighters social recognition. “The police have to treat you with respect,” Prigozhin, who is a confidante of Kremlin chief Putin, said at the meeting.
With a swastika tattoo in action against “Nazis”
A few days later, Prigozhin posed for “Ria Fan” with a few dozen men who, according to him, would now be pardoned after six months of service. These too were awarded medals and – before they are released – warned not to drink too much, not to take drugs, not to rape women.
“Important Stories”, an independent Russian exile medium, was able to identify five of the men. The internet newspaper also published photos of the criminals. Alexander Suetow can be seen on one of them. The 34-year-old poses shirtless and holding a can of beer. A swastika tattoo adorns his chest. In 2020, Suetov was sentenced to ten years in prison for multiple robberies. After serving in the war, which according to the Kremlin aims, among other things, to “denazify” Ukraine, the man with the swastika is now apparently free.
Dmitry Karavaychik, another man decorated for “valor” by Prigozhin, is no stranger. The trial of him and his wife made headlines across Russia in 2019. The veterinarian from St. Petersburg had set up a drug laboratory and his wife was responsible for sales. The press drew attention to the similarity of his story with that of the main character of the hit series “Breaking Bad”. The “Russian Walter White” was sentenced to 17 years in prison in 2019 and is now being released early. According to “Ria Fan”, the drug dealer said he hopes he can “somehow get his wife out”, who has to serve until 2034. “The investigators will be very surprised when they see me,” laughed Karavaychik. Of three other criminals identified by Important Stories, two men were serving sentences for murder. Another had been convicted of multiple robberies.
Millionaire has whole family shot and fled to Turkey
After the video was released in early January, Olga Romanova, founder of the human rights organization Russia behind bars, wrote on Facebook, all the men who were decorated by Prigozhin and whose sentences were supposedly waived would be “recalled” after 45 days. They would all have renewed their contracts with the mercenary group. The human rights activist wrote that those who did not extend the contract had already died on the front line, without being more specific.
Whether the human rights activist is right or not cannot be verified. However, there is actually one criminal who managed to get free after six months in Ukraine and fled to Turkey. The millionaire Alexander Tyutin ordered a total of five murders. In 2018, the real estate agent hired a hitman to get rid of his niece – and potential heiress. Years earlier, in 2005, Tyutin organized the murder of a competitor’s family. At the time, the assassin shot dead a man, his wife and the couple’s two underage daughters.
“A murderer is worth much more than inexperienced boys”
Prigozhin’s reaction to the Tyutin case is remarkable. When a pro-government newspaper asked the Wagner boss whether he thought it was okay that such a criminal was now free thanks to him, Prigozhin was surprised. “A certain prisoner killed a family of four as a real estate agent. You don’t know this family and have never seen them. But you are angry about this fact,” writes Prigozhin in his Answer. “He’s a murderer, and in war he’s worth far more than inexperienced boys.” He then asks the readers which they would rather have: a murderer going to war, “or your relatives, who, unlike a murderer, will return in zinc coffins”. Finally, Prigozhin asked the newspaper’s journalists if there were any among them who would join his mercenary group. “Or are you all wimps?”
Stanslav Bogdanov is not a “wimp”. Despite all the dangers of a war mission and his now missing leg, the murderer from Novgorod connects his future with Wagner. “You opened a door for me,” he says in the “Holod” interview. “The company is expanding,” he explains, referring to the group of mercenaries. “We will always have money. We will have work, even when this war is over. It’s going on elsewhere.”