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  • Update on the soldier kept in captivity

    I remember reading the article about him can't find the thread to update. Just found it was looking for different info.
    Caucasian Knot | Soldier, suspected of desertion, hospitalized after visiting Dagestan with investigators
    PHP Code:
    Soldiersuspected of desertionhospitalized after visiting Dagestan with investigators 

    Andrei Popov, a soldier from Saratov, who claims to have been kept in slavery in brick factories in Dagestan for 11 years, was hospitalized after returning from a trip to Dagestan.

    "Now I'm at the military unit, I'm examined by the doctors. I managed to get hospitalized. I've got acute gastritis, I cannot eat fatty food," the "SarInform" quotes Andrei Popov as saying.

    "They are going to send Andrei Popov to the examination to the Saratov Psychoneurologic Hospital. This is done to partially or completely disavow the Popov's evidence. If he is found mentally unhealthy, then the soldier's testimony could not be used in the trial," the "Saratovnews" quotes Lidiya Sviridova, Chairperson of the Union of Soldiers' Mothers, as saying.

    According to Andrei Popov, during the trip to Dagestan, the delegation from Saratov was pressured and they had to work in a very tense atmosphere, the newspaper "Saratovsky Vzglyad" (Saratov View) reports.

    "They treated us as their bitter enemies. They hired no guards for us, no one. There were two investigators, a lawyer and I. We trembled for our lives," Andrei Popov said.

    According to Andrei's relatives, Dagestani investigators are very close acquaintances of the directors of factories and "in the evenings they practically visit restaurants together."

    "During a month before the investigation, they - our investigators and their investigators - visited all the factories there. I specially looked around while riding, it was clear that many factories do not work for a month already," Andrei Popov stated.

    According to Andrei Popov, "now they all will talk way out of it."
    Originally from Sochi, Russia.

  • #2
    Russian 'Slave-Labor' Soldier Charged With Desertion
    October 31, 2011
    SARATOV, Russia -- A Russian soldier who claims he spent more than a decade in forced labor has been officially charged with desertion, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.

    Andrei Popov went missing 11 years ago while serving his mandatory two-year military service in the Tatishchev military garrison in Russia's southwestern region of Saratov.

    Popov reappeared in his native town of Yershov in mid-August saying he had been kidnapped in 2000 and held for years as a slave laborer in a brick factory in Daghestan in the North Caucasus.

    He was detained on suspicion of desertion, but released several days later and sent to a local military unit to continue his military service while his case was investigated.

    Saratov officials announced on October 31 that the investigation is at an end. Popov has been charged with desertion, and the case has been sent to a local court. If he is convicted of desertion, he faces up to seven years in prison.

    Lidiya Sviridova, chairwoman of the Saratov branch of the Union of Soldiers' Mothers, told RFE/RL that the investigation aimed to incriminate Popov from the very beginning.

    She said the investigators did everything they could to "prove that Popov is guilty, but did not investigate the case in an unbiased way."

    "If the case was closed, the government should have paid Popov millions of rubles as a compensation for the wrong accusations and investigations against him, and therefore, in order to avoid that, the investigators took into consideration only the evidence that proves Popov's guilt," Sviridova said.

    In accordance with Russian law, Popov will face trial 10 days after the day he was charged.
    If they give him jail time for "desertion" it will be a very sad day indeed. It is most likely his commander or someone in the area he served at simply sold him into slavery among with others. Just like soldiers routinely are 'lent' out for construction projects etc...
    Originally from Sochi, Russia.

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