Russia's search for and revenge on "traitors" escalates.

Yevgeny Prigozhin's mercenaries are particularly radical.

Over the weekend, a Telegram channel, which is attributed to the businessman's "Wagner" gang, published a short video and called it "Hammer of revenge".

It features a former convict named Yevgeny Nushin.

He was convicted of murder in 1999 and was imprisoned in a western Russian penal camp.

Frederick Smith

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.

  • Follow I follow

In the summer, Nushin accepted an offer from Prigozhin to fight with “Wagner” at the front in Ukraine.

Thousands of Russian convicts are said to have done so.

By his own account, Nushin wanted to “cross over to the side of Ukraine and fight against the Russians” from the start.

At least that's what the mid-fifties told Ukrainian journalists and bloggers, who published well-received interviews with him.

From the captivity that Nushin is said to have taken in early September.

In the video, however, he was obviously seen again in "Wagner's" violence.

In it, Nuschin's head is fixed to a block of stone.

He received a "hit on the head" in Kyiv last Friday and regained consciousness in "this basement," says Nushin.

He was told that he would be "judged".

Then someone in camouflage, whose face cannot be seen, slays Nushin with a sledgehammer.

The video shows two blows.

Anyone who is "approximately on the subject" knows that "sledgehammer and traitors for the 'orchestra' (the mercenaries, editor's note) are closely linked," commented the Telegram channel.

The background is a video of an alleged "Wagner" torture murder in Syria in 2017, which the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" published.

Questions also arise for Ukraine

Nushin's case raises questions for Ukraine.

Kyiv wants to persuade Russian mercenaries and soldiers to go into captivity.

"I want to live!" is one of the programs.

An exchange against will should be excluded.

But according to Russian reports, which were initially uncommented in Kiev, Nushin was not kidnapped in Kyiv, as his last words indicate, but handed over to the Russian side last Friday in an exchange of 45 prisoners each.

For Russia, the case marks a new border crossing.

During the war, the penalties for “traitors” have been tightened.

In September, for example, deserters were sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.

Those who refuse to obey orders are even threatened with being shot.

According to the independent news portal “Wjorstka”, recruits drafted into the mobilization who abandoned missions that cost many victims are now being held in “cellars” in the Donbass.

But in secret.

Prigozhin, on the other hand, is credited with blatantly threatening to shoot his conscripts in detention centers if they disobeyed orders.

The video with Nushin goes beyond that in the most horrible, demonstrative way.

Prigozhin commented on the publication in his typical manner: not as a direct confession, but as an endorsement.

The clip shows that Nushin "did not find happiness in Ukraine but met evil but righteous people," he explained.

"It seems to me that this movie is called 'A Dog's Death for a Dog.'

A wonderful directorial work to watch in one go.

I hope no animal was harmed during the shooting.”

The spokesman for President Vladimir Putin also reacted in a typical way: Dmitry Peskov did not want to say "anything" when asked whether the video showed the killing of Nushin.

"We don't know if that corresponds to reality," he said, "that's not our case." Until Monday evening, Russian investigative authorities were at least not publicly interested in the case.

The sons of the slain man, Ilya and Nikita Nushin, reported to the exiled Russian legal protection portal "Gulagu.net" that the domestic secret service FSB was looking for them.

Probably to silence her.

The two also fear that Prigozhin's people could settle accounts directly with them as members of an "enemy of the people".

Putin wants tougher action

The concept and practice are reminiscent of Stalin's terror, in whose maelstrom families of "traitors" also fell.

Even before the invasion of Ukraine, cases of violence against members of the opposition and journalists, in which the traces led to Prigozhin's circles, had gone unpunished.

These are among the numerous actors in Russia who intimidate critics.

Vladimir Putin, for whose favor Prigozhin is increasingly aggressively courting, has clearly signaled that he wants even tougher action.

According to the state news agency Ria, the president himself has just intervened to tighten a legislative project.

Anyone who has acquired Russian citizenship should be able to lose it again if they "discredit" Russia's armed forces or spread "false news" about them.

In particular, “undesirable organizations” and “foreign agents” are considered “traitors”.

The Ministry of Justice lists around 180 natural persons and dozens of structures.

Now, from the beginning of December, the ministry wants to publish a lot more data on the “agents”, such as birthdays and tax numbers, and addresses for legal entities as well.

That exposes the “agents” to identity theft – at least.

But the search for someone to blame for Russia's predicament does not stop at the representatives of power.

After the most recent setback, the pullout from Kherson in southern Ukraine, there were renewed calls among radical nationalists to punish “traitors”.

A Ria commenter, regarding the withdrawal decision, wrote that it was "treason" to try to "instill mistrust in those who only seek victory."