{"id":9780,"date":"2016-11-30T08:20:54","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T08:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/informnapalm.org\/en\/?p=9780"},"modified":"2017-03-26T17:15:20","modified_gmt":"2017-03-26T17:15:20","slug":"soldiers-fortune-putin-giving-posthumously-awards-fighting-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/informnapalm.org\/en\/soldiers-fortune-putin-giving-posthumously-awards-fighting-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Soldiers of fortune: is Putin giving posthumously awards for fighting against Ukraine?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The State Duma of the Russian Federation<\/em><\/a> in the first reading passed a bill allowing short-term military contracts on counter-terrorist activities outside the borders of the Russian Federation. Before, a regular soldier or a civilian enrolled as soldier, seaman, sergeant or sergeant major could sign their first contract for the term of 2 or 3 years. Now, if the bill passes all required procedures, the Russian Army will be able, if necessary, to contract conscript soldiers and civilians for short terms \u201cuntil the cessation of the circumstances requiring the conclusion of the contract, but no later than one year since the military service contract effective date\u201d<\/em> (story<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Effectively, now the Russian Army will receive a sort of a separate military branch \u2013 \u201crent-a-soldier\u201d, or \u201csoldiers of fortune\u201d by the hour.<\/p>\n

It seems that the Russian authorities are trying to retrospectively regularize their mercenaries in Donbas, because currently their status is kind of odd. Let\u2019s look closer. If we assume the version used by the Russian propaganda that the Russian citizens fighting in Donbas are all volunteers, their deaths raise certain questions.<\/p>\n

During our routine monitoring of the VK network, we found a profile belonging to a user under the nick of Alexey Cossack (profile<\/a>, archive<\/a>). Already on April 25, the following post appeared on his page (sic!):<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can pay last respects to Alexey on Saturday, 30.04.2016, at 13:00 at 73, prospect Krasnogo Znameni, the burial will be on the municipal cemetery, the post-funeral reception will be in the Cheops restaurant. Everybody wishing to pay their respects to him is welcome\u201d.<\/em> (post<\/a>, archive<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The Cossack\u2019s profile states residence in the city of Vladivostok which, indeed, has a restaurant under the name Cheops<\/a> and there is an administrative building listed at 73, prospect Krasnogo Znameni. Most of his friends are from Vladivostok, as well.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It would seem that he is another victim of Putin\u2019s television who believed in the \u201catrocities committed by Ukrainian Nazis\u201d. You can judge the level of critical thinking of many of the \u201crebels\u201d by the fact that a spoof with a photo of Sasha Grey, an American porn star passed as a DPR nurse allegedly butchered with an axe by \u201cthe Ukrainian junta\u201d, is getting thousands of likes and reposts in the groups of Novorossia supporters. Our Cossack also liked the photo (like<\/a>, archive<\/a>).<\/p>\n

From a photo in his VK profile (page<\/a>, archive<\/a>), we can see that since 2014 he served in Donbas. Most probably, he was one of the crew of a Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer bearing an emotional message: \u201cEverything is God\u2019s will\u201d.<\/p>\n

On his page, the Cossack posted a video which he titled \u201cme, personally, gunning the mercenaries from Poland. Lechs (the Poles)\u201d:<\/p>\n