First among Russians

Roman Zheleznov, a Russian national socialist who has asked for political asylum in Ukraine and is a member of the Azov battalion, claims that his Moscow apartment was searched as part of a criminal case on mercenarism. Perhaps this is the first criminal case against Russian citizens for participating in an armed conflict in south-eastern Ukraine. Among the potential defendants in the case is a neo-Nazi from Samara, who also joined Azov.

Zuhel's witnesses

Investigators came to the apartment where Roman Zheleznov lived with his parents before leaving the country at seven in the morning on Friday, October 3. At the same time, the second investigative team searched the apartment of the suspect’s grandmother, where he is registered, the neo-Nazi claims. The search at the place of actual residence of Zheleznov, known in ultra-right circles under the nickname Zukhel, lasted two hours. The apartment was inspected by an investigator from the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee (GSU SK) and two officers in civilian clothes, presumably operatives of the Center for Combating Extremism under the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Center “E”). The people in civilian clothes did not show any documents.

Investigative actions took place as part of the investigation of a criminal case initiated under Part 3 of Art. 359 of the Criminal Code (“Participation of a mercenary in an armed conflict or hostilities”). The note to this article of the Criminal Code states that a mercenary is a citizen of Russia who fights for money on the territory of another state, except for cases provided for by his official duties. The accused under this article of the Criminal Code faces up to seven years in prison.

“They took a little. Letters, some badges, business cards, photographs from a hundred years ago, stickers, a package of blank CD-R discs, a couple of books, and some other small things. Everything fit into one small package,” one of the members of the National Socialist’s family told Mediazona.

After the search, investigators left summonses for Zheleznov’s parents and sister to appear for questioning as witnesses in the mercenary case. Another summons was issued in the name of the neo-Nazi himself, who has been living in Ukraine since the summer of this year.

Zheleznov claims that investigators have testimony from certain people who saw him with weapons in the zone of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO), which Kyiv has been conducting since the spring of this year against the armed formations of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. He refused to comment on his participation in hostilities and his location on Ukrainian territory.

Zheleznov noted that in “Azov” he, like other foreigners, has volunteer status, but did not specify the type of activity.

“I do not pursue any material interest with my activities, either here or in Russia. There are many orders of magnitude more opportunities for self-realization here than at home,” he explains.

Roman Zheleznov. Photo: personal page “VKontakte”

Probably, the reason for suspicions of mercenarism was a Ukrainian TV story about Russian Azov volunteers and the start of an investigation by the Investigative Committee into a criminal case into the genocide of the Russian-speaking population in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine, Zheleznov believes.

“We want to stay here to live”

A report about Russians in “Azov” was shown by the Ukrainian “Novy Kanal” at the end of September. It is based on interviews with three far-right Russians. They walk along Maidan Nezalezhnosti and talk about their political views, reasons for moving to Ukraine and their desire to obtain citizenship of this country. The TV channel lists all three in the credits as Azov fighters.

“We don’t call ourselves Russians; in our country the word “Russian” is considered an insult. We call ourselves Russians. A Russian is a person who lives in Russia, roughly speaking, just a citizen, and a Russian person is a Slav and considers Russian culture native,” Zheleznov explains to the journalist the subtleties of far-right vocabulary.

The National Socialist is dressed in civilian clothes - in a dark sweater, camouflage pants and red New Balance sneakers. In the interview, the right-wing radical does not touch on the topic of military operations. He says he wants to stay in Ukraine because the country has “a huge field for legal activity.”

“We want to stay and live here <...> Here we can do things that we cannot do in Russia due to repression,” says Zheleznov.

The voice-over clarifies that repression should be understood as Zuchel’s first prison term. At the end of the summer of 2009, a National Socialist was sent to jail for shooting an anti-fascist in the back with a traumatic weapon. Zheleznov received his next sentence in November 2013 for stealing beef from the Metro supermarket, but was soon released.

The second hero of the Novy Channel report is right-wing radical from Samara Artem. In February of this year, he traveled to Kyiv to support protesters at Maidan Nezalezhnosti. Since the beginning of May, a Samaritan, whom the Russian neo-Nazi portal Wotanjugend calls “Yesenin,” has been fighting in “Azov.”

Like Zuhel, he is dressed in casual urban clothes, adjusted to the radical subculture - a gray hoodie with stylized runes.

The only hero of the report who wears camouflage with the distinctive insignia of “Azov” is Muscovite Yuri (Wotanjugend claims that he is known by the nickname “Taxi Driver”). According to sources in the anti-fascist environment, the Taxi Driver is not a citizen of Russia. He was born in Lugansk and moved from there to Moscow. In the capital, the future Azov fighter made money by selling second-hand clothes on the Internet.

In an interview, the Taxi Driver says that he came to Ukraine to join a volunteer battalion and talks about the persecution of his relatives who remained in Russia.

“When it all just started, I went here to the mobilization center to get a job in Azov, and literally a week later my grandfather was kidnapped,” says the ultra-right.

"Russian Corps"

Novy Channel is not the first media outlet to report on Russian citizens fighting or wanting to fight on the side of Kyiv. The activity of Russians is monitored by the anti-fascist resource Streetmob. Its participants identified the ultra-right Russian woman from Pyatigorsk, Yulia Topolova, as part of the Aidar battalion. Mediazona's sources in the Ukrainian armed forces talk about Russians in the Shakhtarsk and Dnepr battalions. Ex-FSB officer Ilya Bogdanov is fighting in one of the volunteer battalions on the side of Ukraine. However, until Friday there was no information about criminal cases of mercenarism initiated based on the participation of Russians in the ATO.

Russian and Ukrainian media reported Zheleznov’s arrival in Kyiv in the summer. The neo-Nazi was destined for the post of head of a unit of the Azov battalion - the “Russian Corps”, where the ultra-right from Russia was supposed to fight.

“He (Zheleznov - MZ ) will be engaged in public activities, will fight,” one of the leaders of Azov, Igor Krivoruchko, promised on the air of the Ukrainian TV channel 112. He personally arrived at the Kiev Boryspil airport and brought an invitation from the battalion for Zheleznov to enter the country, since customs officers initially refused to let him through.

To prove his pro-Ukrainian position, Zheleznov presented airport employees with a flash drive with reports on his political activities. Unlike many Russian ultra-rightists who support the unrecognized and pro-Russian DPR and LPR in the Ukrainian crisis, he spoke out in support of Kyiv. For example, on May 1 of this year, during a demonstration, neo-Nazis led by Zuhel carried a banner with the slogan of Ukrainian nationalists “Glory to the Heroes”, and after it they were photographed with the yellow-blue flag of Ukraine and the red-black flag of the UPA.

Zheleznov decided to fly to Kyiv after a search of his apartment as part of an investigation into the activities of activists of the now defunct right-wing radical movement “Restrukt”. According to investigators , neo-Nazis suspected Azerbaijani Zaur Alyshev of trafficking in narcotic smoking mixtures and severely beat him. Alyshev died in the hospital. Zheleznov denies his participation in the crime, his legal status in this case is unclear.

Another hero of the TV story about Russian volunteers, Artem from Samara, may also face problems at home. In a July interview with the Samara24 website, he admits that he receives a salary for participating in hostilities, albeit a small one.

“The battalion is located under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. The fighters are paid. Since the creation of the battalion, I have been paid 4 thousand hryvnia (11.5 thousand rubles). Many soldiers did not receive even that amount,” a volunteer reveals the battalion’s accounting department. He doesn’t talk about military everyday life in much detail, but he doesn’t hide the fact that he has already been in battle.

State Duma deputy from United Russia Alexander Khinshtein sent requests to the Investigative Committee of the Samara Region and the regional prosecutor's office demanding that the far-right be brought to criminal responsibility. At the deputy’s reception in Samara, Mediazona was told that the deputy had not yet received a response to the request.

The Investigative Committee of the Samara Region told Mediazona that the criminal case is being processed by the Federal Investigative Committee and suggested that they contact them for comments. The Investigative Committee responded that it was necessary to send an official request to obtain information.

On the other side of the front

It is obvious that the number of Russians fighting in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of Kyiv compared to their compatriots who stood up to defend the independence of the people's republics of Donbass is small. In Russia, through the efforts of various organizations, collection points have been established for the militias of the DPR and LPR, but the Russians, participants in combat operations fighting against the Ukrainian armed forces, are much better known.

For example, in the largest armed formation of the LPR militia - the Zarya battalion - supporters of Eduard Limonov are fighting. Aleksey Milchakov and Kirill Rimkus, the ultra-right from St. Petersburg, who decided to fight against Ukraine, received positions in the special forces of the forces of the self-proclaimed republics. The Russians Oleg Melnikov and Alexander Zhuchkovsky are supplying the militias. There has not yet been any reliable information that any of the militias from Russia participated in the conflict in Donbass for money. Volunteers who returned to their homeland have also not yet been prosecuted for mercenarism.