‘A very kind boy’

Two Russian convicts and likely ex-Wagner fighters sought in connection with rape and robbery

Police in Russia's Sverdlovsk region are searching for two men suspected of raping and robbing a young woman. On January 24, Ivan Komarov and Roman Kalmykov allegedly raped a woman and then stole two cellphones, money, and a gold bracelet from her, according to police information published by local community groups.

Komarov’s mother told Yekaterinburg news outlet E1 that her son was recruited to Wagner Group from prison and fought in Ukraine for six months. He returned from the war on May 1, 2023. According to E1, Komarov was sentenced to prison in 2016 after trespassing on a company’s premises, tying up a security guard, hitting a witness with a gun, and then fleeing the scene.

His mother described him as a “very kind boy” who “didn’t even mistreat girls.” She said her son hasn’t contacted her since the alleged incident. She learned that the police were searching for her son from his wife, who called her before heading to the maternity hospital to give birth to the couple’s third child.

In 2016, the other suspect, Roman Kalmykov, was sentenced to 16 years in a “special regime” prison colony for the murder of an 88-year-old pensioner. It isn’t clear how or when Kalmykov was released from prison; however, there’s a picture of him posing in front of a Wagner Group flag on his social media page.