Ahead of Russia’s single voting day on September 14, the authorities continue to present participants in the war against Ukraine as a “new elite.” Candidates in elections at different levels include 254 servicemen, and Novaya Gazeta Europe reviewed information on 181 military units listed as their place of service to identify those tied to formations accused of crimes against Ukrainian civilians.
The article points to servicemen from units involved in the occupation of Bucha, where, according to the Ukrainian side, civilians were killed, robbed, and subjected to violence. It names the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade, whose commander Azatbek Omurbekov is under EU sanctions, as well as the 234th Air Assault Regiment, which The New York Times also linked to crimes in the town.
Among the candidates from those units are Yevgeny Tokarev from Bashkortostan, who served in the 64th brigade, and Tsebek Boskhomdzhiev and Yury Rabe from the 234th regiment. Rabe, a former physical education teacher, told a local outlet about his service and said:
“Faith in the good, a positive attitude, and a sense of humor also help; without jokes, you can’t make it ‘beyond the tape.’”
The report also lists candidates from units that Ukrainian authorities and journalistic investigations have linked to events in Borodyanka, the strike on an apartment building in Dnipro on January 14, 2023, the attack on Kremenchuk, and missile strikes carried out with Kinzhal systems. Those named include Sandzhi Aducheyev, Valery Komarov, and Yury Grishunin.
It separately mentions candidates who served in the 56th Air Assault Regiment, which Ukrainian journalists linked to the killing of guards in the village of Pravdyne in Kherson region, as well as in the 15th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade and the 12th Guards Regiment, which appeared in reports about killings, torture, the shelling of a hospital, and looting. Among those candidates are Sergey Panfilov, Anastasia Abrosimova, Alla Berezina, and Aleksandr Richko.
As the newspaper notes, very little is publicly known about most of these people: they rarely maintain social media accounts, disclose few details of their service, and do not explain what they did during the war. In many cases, the only open clue was the unit number, which made it possible to match candidates’ names with formations accused of war crimes.