‘They tell us nothing’. Russians seeking to join Akhmat special forces unit allegedly imprisoned as replacements for bribe-paying Chechens

Meduza.io

New videos shared by the Telegram channel Astra appear to show a makeshift prison in a police station in Chechnya where Russian men were detained in place of convicted local residents. According to the detainees, these Chechen convicts avoided being sent to Ukraine for assault missions by bribing officials to send the other men in their stead. The prisoners featured in the footage claim they were held for months without adequate food or proper access to bathroom facilities. Here’s what we know about the alleged scheme.

On January 14, the Telegram channel Astra published multiple videos purportedly showing a “prison” located in the police department of Nozhay-Yurt, a village in Chechnya. According to the channel, the facility holds Russians who sought to enlist to fight in Ukraine under contract but were instead imprisoned to be sent into meat-grinder-style assaults in place of convicted Chechens who paid bribes. The channel claims to have obtained the footage from the prisoners and their relatives, though the exact date of the recordings is unclear.

In the videos, the prisoners allege that police confiscated their ID documents, locked them in the station’s basement, and held them there for months. The footage shows about 10 men sleeping on the floor of a sparsely furnished room. The detainees complain about being denied access to bathing facilities and say they were only given access to a clogged toilet.

The men identify themselves as “soldiers who came to defend their homeland” but describe their situation as “slavery,” claiming they were being “sold.” According to them, Chechen residents coerced into military service for various alleged infractions could pay bribes to avoid deployment by having the prisoners sent in their place. The men claim that Chechens who avoided the front lines through these bribes paid between 250,000 and 500,000 rubles ($2,400–$4,900), while the detainees, held for months in the makeshift prison, received nothing. One detainee states that he’s been confined since November 9.

“I volunteered to go to Chechnya and traveled to Grozny to join Akhmat. I was told I would be accepted,” says Alexey Kondratyev, a former Wagner Group fighter, in one video from the basement. “Now I’ve been locked up for two months. You see how we’re sleeping. They tell us nothing. We’ve now learned — and can confirm with evidence — that we’re being sold in exchange for people who broke the law here.”

Astra identified several of the men in the videos. Among them were Vitaly Sorokin, a Ukrainian citizen who defected to Russia after the war in Donbas began; Alexey Kondratyev, who says he previously fought near Bakhmut as part of Wagner Group; and Nikita, a Kislovodsk resident whose last name was not disclosed.

The channel also spoke to Nikita’s foster mother, who said he’d been in a detention center following a misdemeanor arrest when a Chechen man offered him a deal: travel to Chechnya, sign a military contract, and receive 900,000 rubles ($8,782). The man assured Nikita he would remain in Chechnya and not be sent to fight in Ukraine. Nikita agreed, but on November 11, he found himself imprisoned, reportedly in place of a Chechen arrested for driving under the influence. “None of them signed any contracts,” his foster mother explained. “He didn’t even know he’d been sold, and he received no money.”

According to Astra, all three men were released by the end of 2024. The channel alleges that there are 20 of these makeshift prisons in occupied Ukrainian territories and two others in Russia.

Photo: Sergey Bobylev / RIA Novosti / Sputnik / Profimedia