Anatoly Osipov, 27 years old, a contract serviceman of the 8^th Mountain Infantry Brigade, military unit 16544 of the Southern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces, was awarded the medal “For Courage” (award certificate number 64165) by Presidential Decree of 1 September 2014.

 A natural question arises: how it happens that a serviceman of the 8^th Mountain Infantry Brigade is awarded the medal “For Courage” in peacetime? For what services? Isn’t it true that the personnel of the brigade is slacking “without break” at a mountain resort in the village of Borzoi in Chechnya? Or was the medal awarded to Osipov for the agility he demonstrated in the summer battles on the Ukrainian Donbass?

Taking into account the summer-autumn wanderings of detachments of the 8^th Mountain Brigade, including the story of the documents found near Ilovaisk and the information on losses (everything can be found in the Internet or on the links below), I would choose the second version that Osipov was awarded for the courage he manifested in the Donbass. From comments to the Russian version: one can see on the last photos that Osipov has no left hand.

 Related references:

Osipov’s profile in the social network: https://vk.com/id259799439

(by scanning profiles of Osipov’s friends one can find more than one piece of evidence of the involvement of other contractors of the 8th Mountain Brigade in hostilities against Ukraine).

An intelligence unit of the 8^th mountain brigade on the border with Ukraine:

https://informnapalm.org/2037-razvedpodrazdelenye-8-j-msbr-gornoj-na-granytse-s-ukraynoj

Russian 8^th mountain infantry brigade in Ukraine:

https://informnapalm.org/1475-8-ya-gornaya-motostrelkovaya-brygada-v-ukrayne

Author: Irakly Komaxidze

(с) This information was gathered exclusively for the project InformNapalm. Copying and use of the materials are allowed provided that a reference to the author and a link to our website are given.

Translated by Maria Holubeva