School No. 14 in Vladivostok was named after Yevgeny Orlov (Mazay), a Wagnerian killed in Ukraine in the summer of 2022, who also fought in the Donbass and Syria. Renamed in honor of the participants in the war in Ukraine, there are already schools in 12 regions, including the Far East. This is reported by the BBC with reference to the decision of the administration, and the journalists also talked with the son of the deceased.
As the newspaper notes, Orlov’s name was added to the school back in October 2022, the mayor’s resolution on renaming was signed. The local media and the school leadership did not talk about this either in social networks or on websites. Orlov is called the Hero of Russia in the decree, but his family claims that he was not awarded such an award. The representative of the school read to the reporter a certificate about Orlov, which states that he died while performing a combat mission during the assault on Berestovoye (Bakhmutsky district of Donetsk region). His seizure of “power” by the so-called DPR was announced on July 20, 2022.
The connection of the deceased with PMC Wagner is confirmed by the flag of this formation on his grave at the Sea Cemetery, as well as the fact that he was included in the Ukrainian sanctions lists as a sniper-reconnaissance officer of PMC Wagner back in 2021, probably for participation in the war in Donbass.
In his Telegram channel, Orlov published a photo in a military uniform with a Novorossiya chevron, he always fought exclusively as a mercenary, not as part of the regular Russian army. The publication notes that the Wagnerian published the book “Ihtamnet” about the “fantastic adventures of non-existent soldiers”, it tells about the wars in the Donbass and Syria. The book also talks about murders. In May, Orlov commented on the capture of Popasna in the Luhansk region, arguing that the city was taken not by “Chechens”, but by Wagner PMC fighters and marines “honestly suffered.” He was indignant that the victory was "attributed to tiktokers."
Orlov's son Andrei did not know that the school was renamed in honor of his father, he called this step of the administration "a little wild." According to him, a class was named after his father in an educational institution in the area where they lived. The son confirmed that his father fought in Syria and the Donbass, but added that he could not talk about whether his father had fought in the Wagner PMC. He volunteered for the war, says Orlov. The war for his father was “just a job”, he did not believe that the country needed to be “denazified”, he noted and spoke out against the war: “I am against everything that happens, from all sides. Everyone just rolls the world into hell, but our country began. Yes, and my father did not want such glory.
The BBC also found documents according to which the names of those killed in Ukraine have already been assigned to schools in the Amur, Belgorod, Bryansk and Voronezh regions, Bashkortastan, Dagestan, Kaluga, Novosibirsk, Rostov regions, Tatarstan and the Ulyanovsk region. At the same time, the whole school is not renamed everywhere – in a rural school in the Tyumen region, a "Hero Party" appeared in honor of the deceased Wagnerian, the organizer was United Russia. A solemn event was held at the school in honor of the opening of the school desk, at which the deputy head of the district clarified that this military man had no previous convictions.
In December, it became known that Russian serviceman Sergei Obukhov, who died in Kherson in a drunken shootout with the FSB, would be erected a memorial plaque in his native village of Shileksha. The district administration said they wanted to honor his death in this way "in the line of military duty."