Volunteers of the InformNapalm international community together with colleagues from the ‘Myrotvorets’ [Peacekeeper] center continue to disclose the Russian servicemen which double-job as contract soldiers and ‘Novorossiya’ militants. This time our ‘hero’ is a Russian citizen, a candidate for contract soldier of the 74th separate motorized rifle brigade (Central Military District, Russia).
Our attention was drawn by a Russian citizen, who was a militant of a reconnaissance unit from one of the illegal armed groups of the so-called ‘DPR’, acting in the territory of Ukraine under the callsign ‘Altai‘.
Background information:
- Name: Evgeniy Alekseyevich Starkov
- Birthdate: December 24, 1995
- Residence: Barnaul city, Altai Republic, Russia
- Social profiles: VKontakte (archive of profile, album, contacts), OK (archive of profile, album, contacts)
- Conscript service: Starkov served in radar company of the radio-technical troops (military unit No. 58133-20, Bratsk, Irkutsk Oblast) in 2013-2014. Already at that time Evgeniy tended to mask his face.
- Сivil employment: after retirement he spent some time working as a maintenance man for the Russian Railways company.
- Contract service: In the end of July, 2015, Starkov started to gather documents in order to sign a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense, to serve in the 74th separate motorized rifle brigade (military unit No. 21005, the 41st general army, Central Military District, Yurga, Kemerovo Oblast, Russia)
It is difficult to say what is the fate of Starkov, meaning we do not know his current status. But right before leaving for Donbas, he posed in a mask, ‘Gorka’ uniform and an assault vest most likely handed by his employer from the Russian Ministry of Defence.
By October 20, 2015, Starkov had been in the ranks of ‘militia’ for 3 months. Either way, being a citizen of the Russian Federation, Starkov fights against Ukraine, and there are just two possible options:
- The contract was urgently signed and Starkov was sent to ‘faculty of professional skills upgrading’ in Donbas.
- Starkov was asked to show ‘what he can do’, so he left for Donbas on his own in order to prove he was good enough for official service in the Russian army.
These assumptions are based on several facts. In particular, besides the tendency of the Russian servicemen to gather the battle experience in the illegal armed formations of ‘Novorossiya’ (refer to article ‘Novorossiya’ Militant’s Contract Was Finalized in Military Recruiting Office of Volgograd, Russia), there is another one as well. Taking soldiers on contract service, the Russian authorities give preferences to candidates who have toughened up during their individual trips to Donbas. For example, in the end of January of 2016, we disclosed a militant from the ‘Sparta’ formation, who got a travel order in Lipetsk military office to go to the permanent disposition location (see Ex-Terrorist from ‘Sparta’ Gang Signed Contract with the Russian Northern Fleet).
As you can recall, this is not the first time we find the Russian contract servicemen from the 74th brigade in the ranks of the so-called ‘Novorossiya’. In the end of October 2015, we found a soldier from this military unit, who served both as a Russian contract soldier and a militant of the 3rd ‘Hooligans’ battalion of ‘LPR’ (read The Russian 74th Brigade’s Contract Servicemen Fight in Donbas As Hooligans).
The 74th brigade from Yurga has been repeatedly mentioned in our earliest publications too. In November of 2014 we found:
- pictures of the soldiers from this brigade taken in the field camps near the Ukrainian border. These camps were used as bases for raids on Donbas
- copies of the so-called non-disclosure agreements about the ‘restricted access information about execution of specific tasks ensuring the state security of the Russian Federation‘
- pictures of the T-72 tank burnt in Donbas.
(CC BY)
Original article translated by Stepan Grishin