The Minusinsk City Court of the Krasnoyarsk Territory sentenced former Wagner members Maksim Zelenov and Aleksey Chernyavsky to 5.5 years in a penal colony on February 24 in a case concerning military "fakes," reports "7×7"* citing the court's press service.
In September 2023, they gave an interview to the human rights project Gulagu.net, in which they stated that the Wagner PMC command ordered them to kill civilians. "We reached that five-story building, we probably killed about 40 people. These were civilians. People in balaclavas stood behind us, if you turned back, you would also be killed. This was called 'zeroing,'" Zelenov said.
According to court documents, Zelenov and Chernyavsky, through their actions, "misled an unlimited number of people" regarding the legality and authenticity of the actions of Russian mercenaries in Ukraine, "creating the appearance of illegal activities violating international law by the Russian Armed Forces, undermining the authority and discrediting the Russian Armed Forces in society."
According to the investigation, Zelenov and Chernyavsky joined the Wagner PMC in November 2022 while in a penal colony. However, in January 2023, they escaped from the training camp and lived in the self-proclaimed "LPR."
According to the prosecution, they agreed to an interview with Vladimir Osechkin* for a reward of 50,000 rubles and assistance in leaving the country if they agreed to lie about mercenaries killing civilians.
Meanwhile, the Vladimir Garrison Military Court sentenced participant in the war with Ukraine, Andrey Akhremtsov, to a 3-year suspended sentence for stabbing a neighbor during a domestic dispute because the neighbor was watching TV and listening to music loudly. The court recognized participation in the war with Ukraine as a mitigating circumstance.
* Recognized as "foreign agents" in Russia.