The mother of an 18-year-old Daghestani school student claims that her son was tortured into signing a contract to fight in Ukraine and was later killed by his superiors.
Leyla Nakhsunova claimed that her son, Said Murtazaliev, was conscripted after being detained in early January on suspicion of fraud. She said that he was taken to a police station, where officers tortured him and forced him to sign a contract — which he did not read — with the Russian Ministry of Defence.
Nakhsunova told the independent Russian outlet Ponyatno.Media that police officers put a gas mask over Murtazaliev’s head and pressed on his chest until he lost consciousness, after which they made him sign the military contract.
Independent TV channel Dozhd identified the police officer involved in the enlistment as investigator Nadezhda Zabelkina from the Shatura City Police Department. According to independent media outlet Verstka, police officers may receive up to ₽100,000 ($1,275) for each detainee they forcibly enlist into the army.
Murtazaliev was reportedly deployed straight to the frontline without any training, and was stationed in Luhansk in occupied Ukraine. He was assigned to an assault company of the 272nd Motor Rifle Battalion of the 1st Guards Tank Army of the Moscow Military District.
On 7 March, the teenager sent his mother a video message stating that, under orders from the battalion commander, ₽1,150,000 ($14,700) had been forcibly collected from soldiers ‘to avoid an assault mission’. In the same video, he mentioned the call signs of commanders Altai and Kilo, who allegedly gave a soldier known as Spartak orders to ‘zero him out’ — a euphemism for extrajudicial killing. Murtazaliev was declared missing in action a day later.
Dozhd identified Altai as 25-year-old Senior Lieutenant Mikhail Prasolov, a 2023 graduate of the Novosibirsk Higher Military Command School. According to them, Prasolov and more than 10 other commanders involved in extortion and killings of their own soldiers are under investigation, but none have been arrested and all remain deployed on the front line.
Nakhsunova also claims that her son was forced to pay ₽650,000 ($8,300) to avoid being sent on assault missions.
Murtazaliev featured heavily in Dozhd’s documentary, Neither Dead Nor Alive, which claimed that his case was not unique. Citing various estimates, the documentary said between 50,000 and 100,000 Russian soldiers may have gone missing in Ukraine. The figure does not include those who have been reported as being killed or wounded. Many of those who have gone missing may have been forcibly conscripted and later killed or disappeared.
As of now, neither the Prosecutor’s Office nor any investigative bodies have publicly commented on Murtazaliev’s case. It is unclear if his disappearance is under investigation.
Elizaveta Chukharova
