Relatives identified the captive Russian in the video IG* - he fought in Syria in the "Wagner PMC"

Relatives identified one of the participants published by the Islamic State* Video, in which two Russians allegedly captured terrorists in Syria. Parents and brother recognized Grigory Tsurkan in one of the men. “This is not a production,” Roman Tsurkan said in an interview with Business FM radio station. According to the novel, his brother is really not a military personnel of the Ministry of Defense, but fought in Syria as part of the so -called private military company (PMC) Wagner , which, according to the media, participates in military operations in this country.

Earlier, the New Gazeta reported with reference to the organization "Battle Brotherhood. Domodedovo", where one of the video participants was supposedly consisted of, that the resident of the Moscow Region Grigory Tsurkanov (Surkanov) .

However, the parents and brother of Grigory Tsurkan are sure that their relative is in the video. According to Roman Tsurkan, his brother Gregory, a former paratrooper, has repeatedly been to Syria as part of PMCs. As Roman said, he went there in 2012-2013, and on the last business trip was in May. As the prisoner’s brother noted, he learned about the departure of Gregory to Syria only in July, since he had not communicated with him since 2015 "on a number of disagreements."

Returning from Syria four years ago, Grigory Tsurkan, as his brother claims, told him that the "almost whole battalion" fought there, which "covered" the country's president Bashar al -Assad.

When asked whether Grigory Tsurkan left for Syria under a contract, his brother said: “You see, all contracts are apparently unofficial. It is not advertised. Now they say it. They are being refused. He is simply executed now, if you don’t start it, you understand? He has two children.”

Earlier, the first participant in the video was identified, which introduced himself as a roller Roman Zabolotny from the Rostov region. According to the press, he is a member of the Cossack movement.

The day before, it became known that a video appeared on the site associated with the IG* agency, in which two people in Russian talk about how they were captured. One of the men said that he was a riveted Roman Vasilievich born in 1979, a native of the village of Dawn of the Salsky district of the Rostov region. According to the man, he was captured by the counterattack of IG*.

Zabolotny reported his compatriot as a native of the Domodedovo district of the Moscow Region Surkanov Grigory Mikhailovich born in 1978. Roman Tsurkan called the same year of birth and the same patronymic of his brother Gregory in an interview with Business FM.

Last week, IG fighters* said they captured two Russian troops and killed another during the fighting in the Syrian province of Deir Ez-Zor. According to the terrorists, the Russians were captured near the city of Al-Shol. In the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, information about the captivity of the Russian military refuted.

On Wednesday, October 4, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin will check the information that two men detained by the militants of the Islamic State group*are Russians. If this is confirmed, care will be shown about them, he assured.

"Wagner PMC": rumors and facts

The media repeatedly wrote about the fighters of the "PMC Wagner". Regarding the group commander, it was reported that Wagner is a reserve lieutenant colonel Dmitry Utkin, who until 2013 was the commander of the 700th separate special forces of the 2nd separate special forces brigade of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

As reported in December 2016, Utkin, known under the call sign Wagner, in particular, attended a solemn reception in the St. George Hall of the Kremlin on the occasion of the celebration of the Heroes of the Fatherland Day. In January 2017, a photograph appeared in which Russian President Vladimir Putin poses in a festive atmosphere along with Utkin and other PMC fighters. The press secretary of the head of state Dmitry Peskov confirmed the authenticity of the picture and said that the photo could be taken at a reception in the Kremlin on December 9, 2016.

In August last year, the RBC magazine reported that the camp of the Wagner PMC fighters is located on the Molkino farm in the Krasnodar Territory, where the 10th separate special forces brigade of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the Ministry of Defense is deployed. It was noted that the GRU secretly oversees the "Wagner group", and the military department finances the base.

According to the press, on average, in 2015-2016, the Ministry of Defense spent 14.7 million rubles on the military unit, excluding classified contracts. Moreover, some tenders won firms associated with the St. Petersburg restaurateur Evgeny Prigozhin, called the media "personal culinary" of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In July, Cit suspected the fighters of the Wagner PMCin the torture of prisoners of war in Syria, having analyzed the video in which Russian -speaking armed people beat the IG fighter* with a sledgehammer for the song "I am Russian Special Forces." The head of another man, buried around the neck in the ground, was also visible. Experts came to the conclusion that the action takes place in the desert in the east of Syria.

In August, Fontanka wrote that the fighters of the "PMC of Wagner" began problems with payroll payments. In addition, the “mercenaries”, whose existence denies the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, began to issue machine guns that were in service in the 1950s and 1960s in the USSR, the article said.