In Ukraine, three Russian criminal authorities have been eliminated 90s (photo)-Bellingcat

However, some of the prisoners recruited have greatly exceeded this limit. Among them is 59-year-old Sergey Maksimenko, 55-year-old Andriy Berezhni and 55-year-old Igor Kusk. "These three people are noticeable not only with their age, but also by the fact that each of them headed cruel criminal groups in the 1990s," the investigation said. Belligcat journalists have published a detailed dossier of each of the criminal authorities.

Andriy Berezhny was 55 years old when he signed up for the Wagner PEC. In 2013, the Supreme Court of Russia sentenced Andrei Berezhny to 25 years in prison for murder and many other crimes committed by a small gang in the Saratov region from 1994 to 2011. Last year, Berezhni was also sentenced by a Saratov court to attempt to kill 10 more. According to Russian propaganda Telegram channels, the carbers died during the fighting in Ukraine on December 8, 2022, signing to Wagner only a month before.

Local news sites from his hometown Balakovo confirm these events. A month after his death, in the Orthodox Christmas, a memorial service was served in the Balakiv Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. Unlike other dead Wagner prisoners, there was no noticeable turnout and a large number of attendees on this memorial service.

The local funeral service website in Balakov shows photos of his coffin and service (in the archive), which do not see those present, unlike other photos of Russian servicemen and mercenaries who died in battle. Sergiy Maksimenko was 59 when he signed a contract with Wagner, serving a 25-year prison term in the Mordovia Republic. According to the Russian media, he signed a contract with Wagner in September 2022.

Like the Berezhni, Maksimenko died in December 2022, fighting in a private military company in the territory of Ukraine. According to open court documents, Maksimenko headed a criminal group in the city of Penza under the name "Olympia", which during the 1990s and 2000s engaged in activity, including prostitution, extortion and murder. As the leader of Olympia, Maksimenko was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2014, which became the longest term of punishment of 13 members convicted in Penz.

Igor Kusk signed a contract with Wagner at the age of 55, serving a 23-year-old prison term in Sikotivar, the capital of the Republic of Komi. Unlike Berezhni and Maksimenko, a cock, which was a veteran of the Soviet Union war in Afghanistan, sought to fight in Ukraine before he visited his prison - his widow told a Russian "business newspaper", as he sent a letter to Chechen Ramzan Kadirov's leader with a proposal to fight in Ukraine.

The widow of Kuska told how he joined Wagner before sending "to the front on July 25", and this is confirmed by reports that Wagner had recruited people from prison colonies in the Komi Republic in the summer of 2022. The court's judgment according to the court's sentence of 2015 in detail how Igor Kusk created his criminal group, named in his honor ("Kuskivsky", which is about translated as "Kusk's Boys"), in 1998 in Tatarstan.

His group was particularly active in the Lower and large regional capital of Kazan, with more than one million people. "Kuskovsky" was characterized by the fact that there were many veterans of Afghanistan in their benches, which was why its group was also called "Afghan". On February 9, the Institute of War Study (ISW) reported that the founder of the Wagner PEC Yevgeny Prigogin joined when he said that he had stopped recruiting prisoners in Russian colonies in his group.

However, the set of the set decreased significantly. This conclusion of analysts came on the basis of statistics of the Federal Sentence Service (FSVP), which shows that in the period from November 2022 to January 2023, the reduction of the numbers of prisoners in Russia stabilized. On February 9, the founder of Wagner PEC Yevgeny Prigogin answered the questions of journalists about recruiting prisoners.

He stated that the recruitment of mercenaries in the group among the prisoners was terminated, and before those who are fighting in the PEC, all obligations were fulfilled. We will remind, the telegram-channel of the founder of PEC "Wagner" Yevgeny Prigogine on February 13 posted a video with former Zec Dmitry Yakushchenko, published by a military organization.