The volunteers of the InformNapalm international community continue to collect information about the Russian soldiers awarded with the highest state military awards in the peacetime. In this article, we present you an officer from the Russian 7th military base, who was awarded in the spring of 2015 with an  ‘Order of Courage’, and his commander from the 49th general army (Southern Military District) who rewarded this officer.

During research of the social networks profiles of the Russian soldiers who already passed through the so-called ‘Rostov-Ukrainian assignment’, one of them, Nikolay Li, drew our attention. He is a contract soldier from the Russian 7th military base, located in the Gudauta city, military unit No. 09332, in the occupied Abkhazia in Georgia (archived profile, photo album, contacts). In his photo album, a slide was found, uploaded on March 28, 2015, with Nikolay’s comment ‘together with commander’, where he was captured together with another soldier who wearing an ‘Order of Courage’. Another photo of three soldiers in non-statutory ‘Gorka’ uniform (two of them, including Li, had the signs of fatigue and aloofness) was uploaded the same day.

It was not difficult to find the ‘commander’ mentioned by the Nikolay, because his surname ‘Dudorov’ and initials ‘S.A.’ were clearly readable on his name badge in the photo. It was senior lieutenant Sergey Dudorov, the commander of the 4th subunit of motorized infantry battalion of the same Russian 7th occupation military base from Abkhazia, who has participated in the ‘Rostov-Ukrainian assignment’ as a part of the tactical task forces for several times already.

Personal data: Sergey Dudorov is 27 years old and comes from Blagoveshchensk (his archived pages in social networks: ‘VK’ profile, photo album, contacts; ‘ОК’ profile, photo album, contacts). He graduated from the Far East Higher Military Command School named after Konstantin Rokossovsky. His wife Olya Dudorova, is 24 years old, and she comes from Blagoveshchensk too.

Despite the modesty of his profile in the ‘VK’ social network (minimum contacts and photos), there is a number of interesting slides in his photo album, including photo uploaded on January 16, 2016, showing some major-general who awarded Sergey Dudorov with an ‘Order of Courage’ in front of the unit formation lined up in the field.

Note: The ‘Order of Courage’ is a state military award of the Russian Federation first established by the provision from March 2, 1994, in accordance with the presidential decree. The ‘Order of Courage’ is awarded to citizens of the Russian Federation who showed dedication, courage and bravery in protecting public order, fighting crime, rescuing people during natural disasters, fires, accidents and other emergencies, as well as for bold and decisive actions committed during the carrying out military or civil duties under conditions involving a risk to life. The majority awarded the ‘Order of Courage’ got this medal for fighting in the North Caucasus. Lieutenant-general V. Shamanov, the commander of the 58th army is one of those who received this award for fights in 1999-2000.

Among the other Dudorov’s photos, you can see the slides from Rostov Oblast of the Russian Federation, which borders with Ukraine, including photos from the vicinity of the Kusminsky military training area (which is indicated by the respective geotags). According to our data, Kusminsky is one of the disposition of the Russian forces pointed at Ukraine. Most pictures from the Rostov Oblast’s fields were uploaded in January of 2016, although the picture above with Dudorov and Li indicates that photo with an ‘Order of Courage’ was made in the spring of 2015. The other photos can belong to the later period, because tactical task forces from the 7th Russian military base are regularly on duty in Rostov Oblast near the Ukrainian border and are periodically used to support corps of ‘DPR/LPR’, with rotation period every 3-4 months.

A certificate ‘for the valiant carrying out the military duty’ from February 23, 2015, signed by colonel М. Коsobokov, the commander of military unit No. 09332 (the same 7th Russian occupation military base), was discovered in Dudorov’s profile in the ‘ОК’ social network.

Please look at the archived photos — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

It was not difficult to identify the person who rewarded Dudorov, this was major-general Sergey Sevryukov, the commander of the 49th army (Southern Military District), who was appointed to this position in December of 2013.

It is not a secret that the troops of the Southern Military District and the 49th Russian Army in particular are in the vanguard of the Russian military group pointed at Ukraine. The Russian Southern Military District’s command and troops are the main suppliers of hybrid war and terrorism in Donbas. This has been repeatedly reported by the Main directorate of intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, and also the Bloomberg authoritative edition wrote about this, based on what the InformNapalm added several important details to this data.

Personal data: Sergey Mikhailovich Sevryukov is 52 years old and comes from the Bugulma city, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. He served in the Soviet Army, including 5 year assignment to Germany. Until transfer to the south of Russia, he had served for 10 years in the Russian Far East, which included being the commander of the 46th District Training Center. He finished the Suvorov Military School and Kazan Tank School, and afterwards graduated from the General Staff Academy. His wife’s name is Irina, she served as a warrant officer in the Russian armed forces too. His children — son Mikhail (30 years old) and daughter Ekaterina (27 years old). Sergey was awarded with the ‘Order of Courage’ in 1995 for the military service in Chechnya.

In view of the above, considering also the chronology (photo where Li posed together with the awarded commander) and the award status, we can assume that major-general Sergey Sevryukov awarded senior lieutenant Sergey Dudorov with the ‘Order for Courage’ following the results of the events in Debaltseve in February of 2015. At that time, the Russian military command actively used battalion/company tactical groups of the Russian Armed Forces, which were deployed in the field camps in the Rostov Oblast at the border with Ukraine, in order to turn the tide and to support the ‘DPR/LPR’ terrorists. Moreover, those units from the Russian 7th occupation military base repeatedly appeared in different episodes of our OSINT-investigations in the context of the ‘Rostov-Ukrainian assignments’. Some of these contract soldiers, in parallel with service in the Russian forces, fight in the ranks of the illegal armed formations in ‘Novorossiya’ until now.

The links below presented the 15 episodes that contains facts of participation soldiers from the 7th Russian military base in the military aggression against Ukraine:

• ‘Bored silly’: the Russian Invaders’ Games in Donbas
• Russian Contract Soldier from the 7th Base Fights as ‘DPR’ Militant
• Russia Deploys the Military Equipment of the 7th Base to Rostov Oblast
• Massive Deployment of the Russian Troops And Equipment from the Occupied Abkhazia Is Registered
• The Cover Story of the ‘Former’ Soldier of the 7th Russian Base Does not Hold Water
• ‘Cinderellas’ with Self-propelled Artillery Systems or How Russian Contract Servicemen are Posing as ‘Self-defense’
• More soldiers from 7th Military Base received Combat Medals after temporary duties in Ukraine
• Mihos ‘the Brave’ the Scout from the 7th Military Base and the Chevalier of a Gallantry Medal (RU)
• Conscript Soldiers of the 7th Russian Military Base are Massively Recruited as a Contractors for ‘Ukrainian assignments’ (RU)
• Military Personnel from the 7th Russian Military Base from Abkhazia Awarded with Medals for the fighting in Donbas (RU)
• ‘From the Tangerine Paradise to the Ukrainian Hell’: as the Russian Contractors in Voluntary-Compulsory Sent to Kill Ukrainians (RU)
• The Reactive Artillery of the 7th Russian Occupation Base from Abkhazia is at the Border with Donbas (RU)
• Medical Detachment of the 7th Military Base from Abkhazia Identified near the Border with Ukraine
• ‘Donetsk Express’ – the Identification of the Russian Military Equipment and Weaponry that Swing to Donbas (RU)
• Combat Crews of 2S3 ‘Akatsiya’ of the 7th Military Base Were Identified along the Border with Ukraine

(CC BY) Original article translated by Bogdan Belka, edited by Stepan Grishin.