The video, in which the ex-fighter of PMC Wagner Yevgeny Nuzhin is executed with a sledgehammer, will be checked by the investigation. This was reported to RBC by Tatyana Moskalkova, Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation.
“I know about this video. Any cruelty and wrongfulness requires the intervention of the state, and I know that today the investigating authorities are checking these facts, establishing the true state of affairs, in order to determine whether they are genuine and who is guilty of these events, ”she told RBC.
Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he would not comment on the video, as "it's none of our business." “No, we don't have any comment. We do not know what it is, how true it is. It's none of our business," Peskov said.
The video with the execution of Nuzhin was published in the Gray Zone Telegram channel, which is associated with the Wagner PMC. In early September, Nuzhin surrendered to Ukrainian captivity, after which he gave an interview to Ukrainian journalist Yuri Butusov, where he spoke about the terrible conditions in the Russian army and that he wants to go over to the side of Ukraine. The description of the execution video states that the man "suddenly disappeared from investigation in Kyiv." Nuzhin himself in the video says that on November 11, while in Kyiv, he received a blow to the head, lost consciousness and woke up in the basement, where he found out that he "would be judged." At the same time, the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel claims that Nuzhin returned to Russia during the last exchange of prisoners of war. The same information was published by the human rights project Gulagu.net: according to the information of the head of the project, Vladimir Osechkin, Nuzhin was exchanged for 20 Ukrainian military men, this was personally lobbied by the founder of Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Prigozhin himself, commenting on the video, first stated that Nuzhin "did not find happiness in Ukraine, but met with unkind, but fair people."
“It seems to me that this film is called“ To a dog – a dog’s death ”. Excellent directorial work, looks in one breath. I hope not a single animal was harmed during filming, ”the press service of his Concord company quoted Prigogine as saying.
However, when the Kremlin began to ask questions about the video, Prigozhin changed his rhetoric, saying that Nuzhin was executed by the US and NATO special services, but he created the conditions for his own execution by infiltrating the PMC. “It is absolutely clear to me that Yevgeny was kidnapped and brutally murdered by US intelligence officers. The Wagner Operations Center is currently investigating the version that Yevgeny Nuzhin was recruited by the CIA and went to prison for 27 years in advance, due to the fact that the CIA knew in advance about the future coup in Ukraine in 2014, as well as possible clashes on territory of Ukraine, he infiltrated the Wagner PMC and created the conditions for his execution.”