BORN leaders Nikita Tikhonov and Ilya Goryachev. Collage: Antifa Ru, Telegram
Two Russian neo-Nazis who are currently serving life sentences for high-profile political murders have been attempting to secure their early release from prison to fight in Ukraine, state-affiliated news channel RTVI reported on Monday.
The revelation was reportedly made last Monday, during a livestream on Russian social media platform VK by pro-war blogger Alexander Kots. When asked whether prisoners serving life sentences could be pardoned to be sent to the frontline, Kots revealed that Nikita Tikhonov and Ilya Goryachev, the leaders of the Battle Organisation of Russian Nationalists (BORN), a now defunct neo-Nazi group, had approached him asking the same thing, saying that both the Wagner mercenary group and Russia’s Defence Ministry had rejected their applications.
Tikhonov was sentenced to life in prison in 2011 for the murders of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova and lawyer Stanislav Markelov. Tikhonov’s girlfriend, Yevgenia Khasis, was also convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison as an accomplice to the murder, and is due to be released in the coming months.
In 2015, Goryachev was convicted of masterminding five murders, including those of Baburova and Markelov, as well as for establishing a neo-Nazi group and for illegally possessing weapons.
A prominent lawyer who had represented Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya before her murder in 2006, as well as various left-wing and anti-fascist groups, Markelov was gunned down as he left a press conference in central Moscow on 19 January 2009. Baburova, who worked as a freelance journalist for Novaya Gazeta, was shot in the back of the head after rushing to Markelov’s aid.
Since the war began, the Russian authorities have frequently offered convicted criminals early release from prison in exchange for enlisting to serve with the Russian military in Ukraine. Such arrangements have also been offered to those awaiting trial, despite them not having been convicted of any crime.