A Russian deserter, Dmitri Sedrakov, was illegally captured by Russian forces on Armenian territory on December 7. It's an unprecedented case that has served as an alarm bell for the tens of thousands of Russians who fled abroad to escape military mobilization since the launch of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Tracked down for voluntary desertion, the soldier, who left Ukraine after fighting there, was taken to the Russian military base at Gyumri in northern Armenia. On Tuesday, December 19, he was transferred to Russia, according to Grigori Sverdlin, the head of Idite Lesom! ("Go by the forest"), which assists deserters who wish to flee. The organization helped soldier Sedrakov to leave his country on November 30.

"This is a very dangerous precedent," said Sverdlin. "Dmitri's case is the first instance of a Russian army deserter being kidnapped abroad by Russian servicemen." Before him, many other deserters had already been extradited from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan − where thousands of men fleeing mobilization have also taken refuge − but they were arrested by the local authorities. A refugee in Georgia surrendered to Russian border guards.

Sedrakov was taken to Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia. Where he was arrested in Armenia remains unclear. What is clear, however, is that Russian soldiers had "absolutely no right to capture this man," said Armenian human rights defender Artur Sakunts, the head of the Vanadzor office of the international organization Helsinki Citizens' Assembly. "This is a violation of Armenian sovereignty." According to Sakunts, those who abducted Sedrakov lied about their identity, claiming to be Armenian military police.

Informed of the situation by the soldier's wife, who lives in Rostov-on-Don, Sakunts called the Russian military base in Gyumri while the deserter was still there to find out what his fate would be. "The person I spoke to didn't introduce himself but I think he was from the FSB [Russian federal security services]," he said. "I asked him on what legal basis they had arrested this man on the sovereign territory of Armenia." The answer was: "We're carrying out Putin's orders."

"You can implement them even in Armenian territory?" the human rights activist said, feigning surprise. "We can execute Putin's orders anywhere," said the man on the other end of the line brusquely. An investigation by independent media outlet Proekt found that a member of the FSB was involved in the deserter's abduction. The man in question was Vadim Shevchenko, a 2018 graduate of Moscow's Border Institute, a military academy within the FSB.

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