At the end of June, Russia adopted a law allowing defendants and those already convicted to escape punishment. To do this, they need to conclude a military contract – then instead of a settlement, you can quite legally go to the front. However, before the changes in the legislation, thousands of prisoners participated in the military conflict in Ukraine by working in various PMCs, although there is no legal basis for this. One of these convicts turned out to be Nikolay Rozdukhov: he went to Ukraine under the PMC Wagner, unaware of the corrective work assigned to him, and the court turned a blind eye to this. But after returning from the front, a new criminal case and an arrest awaited him. Using Rozdukhov’s story as an example, Russian media chronicles how the justice and prison systems emerged from the legal conflict created by the new reality.
experienced scammer
Nikolai Rozdukhov is an experienced repeat offender. The 44-year-old received his first sentence then in 2016 – he was found guilty of fraud by a group of people by prior agreement, theft of other people’s property, as well as theft of documents , and was sentenced to two years in a colony-establishment. A year later, he was released on parole. In 2018, he returned to his old ways and was promptly arrested. The case dragged on for three years and Rozdukhov did not receive his second term until 2021. Throughout the investigation, he spent a total of 12 months in detention and, between his stay in the detention center tentatively, he managed to “throw money” at several other people.
Russian media discovered a post on VKontakte in the Vologda community with complaints about Rozdukhov. The author of the post asks people to be vigilant and not to deal with him.
“Unscrupulous entrepreneur-Rozdukhov (in VK Zamurakin) Nikolai Vladimirovich! He takes an advance on the materials for the construction of the houses, but does not fulfill his obligations. They transferred 387,000 to him, the obligations have not been fulfilled, they are returning in small parts, so far only 10,000. A pre-trial request has been drawn up, there will be a trial. I want to warn people not to fall in love with him,” the post read.
Archive photoVladimir Tereshkov / Russian media
The message is dated July 2020 – at that time a second criminal case was being investigated against Rozdukhov, but he was not in custody. Now the man’s profile in the social network is closed and, apparently, is already inactive – there are no notes about the last appearance on the site. The page description reads: “Beautiful homes and more, from around the world. Ready to repeat, or build according to your project.
The verdict in the second case was delivered in 2021. This time Rozdukhov was found guilty of particularly large-scale fraud and received a final sentence of three years and four months in a strict regime colony. After a while, the Federal Prison Service asked the court to replace his real sentence with a lighter sentence.
As a result, Rozdukhov was released with the obligation to undergo corrective labor. This type of punishment, unrelated to isolation from society, is usually prescribed for a minor offence. The convict is obliged to find a job within the time set by the court and to withdraw from it from 5 to 20% of his earnings. At the same time, you cannot voluntarily quit your job or refuse to perform tasks.
How Rozdukhov went to the front “with the tacit consent” of the surveillance agency
After being released from the colony, Rozdukhov learned about the possibility of going to the front. This was done with the help of Wagner PMC. As part of the training, he fought from October 2022 to January 2023. There Rozdukhov commanded a flamethrower squad and even received a medal “For Courage”. Due to his injury, he had to return home for treatment. At the same time, Rozdukhov did not have time to start corrective work – first he was in training camps, then went to the front. According to the man’s lawyer Dmitry Bogdanov, the law prohibits such arbitrariness, but in fact “he left by tacit consent”.
Archive photoAlexander Koryakov / Kommersant
According to the Vologda City Court file, the prison inspectorate twice demanded the abolition of corrective labor and its replacement with real imprisonment – in September 2022 and in January 2023, when Rozdukhov returned from the front. Both times the court denied it.
“The court refused, and thus his business trip was legalized,” explained the lawyer.
Participation with confession and new criminal case
Returning from the war zone, Rozdukhov decided to go to the police – to tell about the episodes of fraud committed in 2020 – during the period when he was under investigation in another case. The motivation for such recognition, according to lawyer Bogdanov, was the fighting, which forced him to reconsider his views. “War makes you see things differently,” the former Wagnerian explained during the surrender.
As a result, a new case was opened against Rozdukhov, he ended up on bail. At the same time, the lawyer notes, despite the formal ban on leaving the city, his client went on a humanitarian mission to the front, took the bodies of the deceased residents of Vologda and brought them home. The criminal and correctional inspectorate knew about it, but turned a blind eye.
In addition to the informal authorization to visit the conflict zone, the inspectorate has planned to ask the court for a suspension of sentence “due to illness”. The adjournment gives the convict the opportunity to avoid serving their sentence, provided that they do not commit any new crimes during this period.
Also in May, the inspection sent Rozdukhov a referral to the military registration and enlistment office “in order to clarify information about the possibility of military service under the contract, including participation in an operation Special Military” (available on Russian media).
However, Rozdukhov’s plans and the inspection were violated by Moscow investigators. They opened a criminal case on the basis of one of the episodes of fraud, which the man decided to keep silent when he came with a confession to Vologda (the decision to bring him to appear as a defendant is available to Russian media).
According to lawyer Bogdanov, his client did not talk about this episode, because he considered it a matter for civil court – the victim filed a lawsuit – and was sure that the case could be settled with compensation. . But investigators decided otherwise, and on May 22, when Rozdukhov arrived in Moscow, they arrested him. On May 26, he was sent by the court to a remand center.
A month later, the lawyer obtained a change in the preventive measure – now Rozdukhov is under a ban on certain actions. He is forbidden to communicate with the other participants in the case, to use the mail and to speak to anyone on the telephone or on the Internet about the circumstances of the case. After being released from the remand center, Rozdukhov returned home to Vologda.
Meanwhile, in Vologda, investigators have finished investigating the fraud case – nine episodes ago – and have already been sent to the prosecutor’s office for approval.
Lawyer Bogdanov insists that the Vologda and Moscow cases be combined and then considered together in the Vologda court. According to him, Moscow investigators refuse to transfer the case to Vologda – for this reason, the defender went to court with a complaint about their actions. Bogdanov suggests that the Vologda prosecutor could send the case back for further investigation, precisely because, from a procedural point of view, the episodes of a crime must be combined into a single procedure. Until it happens.
What tricks did the system use to allow convicts to participate in hostilities?
Before his arrest, Rozdukhov managed to come to Moscow to agree on his re-participation in hostilities. There he was offered to join the volunteer detachment “Uranus”.
“He was at the military registration and enlistment office, he was offered to consider another option. He is also injured. He was told, first, that he needed treatment and, second, that he was considering serving in volunteer units. He traveled to Moscow to present documents and show himself to the detachment of Uranus, which is under Roscosmos, ”the lawyer said.
Volunteer Battalion “Uranus”@UranWar / Telegram
At the same time, the Uranus Battalion website mentions as one of the recruitment criteria the existence of an expired criminal record, which Rozdukhov does not yet have. However, according to Bogdanov, this is only a convention.
“Everything is conditional. The outer casing will be shiny and beautiful. In fact, everything happens differently. He turned to Uranus, spoke of his combat experience. He was no ordinary fighter, but a squad leader. There are no restrictions for those with experience,” the lawyer said.
There is no practice of releasing convicts who wish to go to the front before the adoption of the relevant law. Attorney Bogdanov says we don’t have an entirely block of laws related to military operations, and “all law enforcement practices follow oral instructions.” He notes that currently there is still no amnesty related to the hostilities.
“There were different mechanisms (release of prisoners to participate in hostilities – Russian media). Somewhere there were pardons, somewhere they were put on the wanted list, that they would have fled. They were told this: “You fight, you will fight back, we will erase your criminal record. And if you desert, then on the territory of Russia you will be wanted, and in Ukraine no one needs you,” he concluded.
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