Residents of villages in Transbaikalia said that masked men tortured relatives and acquaintances of military personnel who left their unit without permission.

They believe they were military police officers

Residents of several villages in the Gazimuro-Zavodsky district of the Trans-Baikal Territory told the publication “People of Baikal” that masked people (presumably military police officers) tortured and beat their friends and relatives during the search for deserters. The information about the use of force against local residents was confirmed to journalists by the heads of these villages.

As the publication’s interlocutors said, on November 2, unknown masked men forced a 24-year-old resident of the village of Trubachevo into their car. In the salon, the man was beaten, demanding to know where his second cousin was, who did not return to the military unit after his release from Ukrainian captivity.

The mother of the beaten man, Olga Vtorushina, said that their son was beaten with an electric shocker and he lost consciousness several times. As a result, the man was released only after he called his brother, who was eventually taken away by the same people. Vtorushina believes that he will be sent to war again, and those who took him and beat her son work in the military police.

On the same day, a 25-year-old local resident was taken away from the neighboring village of Novoshirokinskoye, his mother told reporters. According to her, her son served under a contract, was seriously wounded in the head and refused to return to service. His mother claims that they tried to return him to the front without a medical commission.

For several months, a resident of Novoshirokinsky hid in the village until a search group from military unit 06705 from Borzya, in which he served, came to pick him up. To find and detain the contract soldier, the group’s employees tortured the military man’s father with a stun gun and also beat his friend, the woman claims.

The torture of residents of Novoshirokinsky and Trubachevo was reported on the telegram channel of the “military correspondents” of the local newspaper “Vechorka”. According to them, people in masks also walked along the streets of the village of Ushmun, “but they were not allowed into the houses there.”

The channel claims that military police officers visited the villages and received information about deserters from local police officers. “But after these atrocities, our police officers filed a complaint with the Investigative Committee against the military police officers, and now they refuse to cooperate with the military police,” the “military correspondents” claim.

At the same time, “People of Baikal” write that the military police have used force against residents of Transbaikal villages before. So, on August 19, police officers detained a 36-year-old resident of the village of Shirokoye Gazimuro-Zavodsky district, said his mother Irina. Her son is mobilized. He came on vacation and didn't return on time. The mother claims that the man stayed to help his wife, who was soon to give birth to their third child.

According to Irina, the police came to the house of friends of the mobilized man, where he was visiting, “stunned him with a shocker, handcuffed him, loaded him into the trunk and took him to Chita.” The woman believes that these were the same people who traveled to the villages on November 2.

The most mobilized was eventually found beaten in a military unit in the village of Domny. At the end of September he went missing in action during the war.

Cover photo: Pavel Lisitsyn / RIA Novosti / Sputnik / Profimedia