One of the prisoners to whom Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of PMC Wagner, promised freedom after participating in the war on the territory of Ukraine, was Dmitry Karyagin, who in 2014 killed his own grandmother, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. At the time of the murder, the woman was 87 years old. The identity of the prisoner, who signed a contract with Prigozhin's PMC, was established by the "Agency" on the video published by RIA FAN.
According to the case file cited by the Agency, Karyagin persuaded his grandmother to sell the apartment for 820,000 rubles, then took her to the garage, where he hit her on the head with a hammer. Karyagin told his relatives that his grandmother had moved to Ukraine, and the murder became known only a year later. In 2016, the court sentenced Karyagin to 14.5 years in a strict regime colony.
On January 5, Karyagin wrote a post on his VKontakte page for the first time since his arrest:
“In Anapa, on rehabilitation after being wounded, 480 meters from the sea by a steep lady [probably meaning “home soon”],” he wrote.
Among other prisoners who, according to Prigozhin, should receive a pardon after participating in the war are Daniil Saveliev, twice convicted for robbery, Viktor Varnakov, twice convicted of fraud, Yevgeny Rubezhsky, convicted in Ukraine for theft, Vladimir Ryashentsev, who was sentenced in 2015 to 2.5 years in prison for the theft of four bicycles, as well as Alexander Kobchenko, who was convicted for theft.
On January 5, Prigozhin announced that the first prisoners who fought in Ukraine had already been pardoned.
“They fulfilled their contract with honor, with dignity, one of the first … The first. They worked the way few people work… The society should treat them with the deepest respect, and they should not violate the laws,” he said about the convicts recruited in the colonies.