
From War Hero to Fraud Charge: Russian Commander Alleged to Orchestrate Self-Inflicted Injuries
A Russian lieutenant colonel known as Executioner, once celebrated in propaganda, faces trial on accusations that he and another commander in the elite 83rd Guards Air Assault Brigade ran a scheme in which soldiers and medics shot themselves to secure battlefield-injury payouts, defrauding the army of about 200 million rubles; he denies the specifics but acknowledges a payouts scheme.












