BadMedicine
Would *I* Lie???
‘Traitor’: Brutal footage shows sledgehammer execution of Russian fighter
Brutal footage has emerged that purports to show the execution of a Russian fighter who changed sides to fight for the Ukrainians and was blasted by a Putin ally as a “traitor.”
nypost.com
‘Traitor’: Brutal footage shows sledgehammer execution of Russian fighter
By
Evan Simko-Bednarski
November 14, 2022 1:25pm
Updated
Brutal footage has emerged that purports to show the execution of a Russian fighter who changed sides to fight for the Ukrainians and was blasted by a Vladimir Putin ally as a “traitor.”
The video — distributed under the heading “The hammer of revenge” on Telegram over the weekend — claims to show the Russian mercenary, who gave his name as Yevgenny Nuzhin, 55, being executed with a sledgehammer.
Russian oligarch Yvgeny Prigozhin — the Putin-aligned money man behind the paramilitary Wagner Group and election interference efforts in the US — opined that the title should be changed to “A dog receives a dog’s death.”
The video opens on Nuzhin, whose head has been taped to a portion of a brick wall.
“I am Yevgenny Anatolievich Nuzhin, born in 1967,” he said, before stating that he fled the Russian forces to fight alongside Ukraine in September.
Nizhun’s head was taped to a brick outcropping before the fatal blow.social media/e2wA man can be seen walking around in the background as Nuzhin speaks.
Nuzhin said he was abducted in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in October and brought to a basement in an unknown location.
“I woke up in this basement, where I was told I was going to be tried,” he said in the video.
Wagner money man Yvgeny Prigozhin praised the brutal execution Sunday.social media/e2w
As he spoke, the unidentified man in the background violently swings a sledgehammer into Nuzhin’s head. The 55-year-old immediately crumples to the floor before the second man brings the hammer down onto his head a second time.
The video then cuts to black with the word “sentenced” written on-screen in Russian.
“Nuzhin betrayed his people, betrayed his comrades, betrayed consciously,” Prigozhin said Sunday. “Nuzhin was a traitor.”
It is unclear if either Nuzhin or his executioner had been part of the Wagner Group. The Telegram channel where the video originated has been known to share Wagner-affiliated material.
An earlier photograph of Nuzhin appears to identify him as a penal colony inmate — potentially one of several recruited by Prigozhin to join Wagner’s ranks.
The Wagner Group, a semi-private paramilitary organization operating in Ukraine at Moscow’s behest, has been cited worldwide for its brutality and its tendency to do Russian dirty work abroad.
In his comments on the video, Prigozhin also made a thinly veiled threat to those who have opposed the war at home or fled the Russian draft.
“Do not forget, there are not only traitors who throw away their automatic guns and go over to the enemy,” he said.
It is unclear whether Nuzhin had come to Ukraine as part of a Wagner unit.social media/e2w“Some traitors are holed up in offices, not thinking about their own people. Some of them use their own business jets to fly to those countries that seem neutral to us so far. They fly away so as not to participate in today’s problems. They are traitors too." ( (Kinda sounds like a threat to russian politicians not "going along" or russian oligarchs trying to distance themselves from the Kremlin - BadMedicine ))
Prigozhin, who has previously sued a journalist for reporting on his connection to the Wagner Group, has been making increasingly public statements lately — admitting to his role behind the paramilitary organization in September and becoming increasingly involved in Russian politics in the weeks since.
With wires
