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Kremlin Denies Knowledge of Grisly Wagner Killing in Syria

Jamie Dettmer

   MOSCOW - A Russian who participated in the torture of a captive in
   Syria and filmed the prisoner's dismemberment and beheading has been
   identified by media outlets as a former policeman from Stavropol in
   southern Russia, who served as a mercenary employed by the Wagner
   Group, a Kremlin-sponsored private military contractor.

   A video of the four Russian-speaking men taking part in the gruesome
   murder was first posted online in 2017 and new footage of the killing
   emerged on social media this month. The first video showed the
   assailants smashing the victim with a sledgehammer and dismembering
   him. A second video was posted on a closed account for Wagner members
   on the Russian social media site VKontakte, but was quickly unearthed
   by investigative journalists.

   Novaya Gazeta, an independent newspaper, said it has used
   facial-recognition technology to identify one of the mercenaries and
   then corroborated its findings with his Russian passport and leaked
   internal Wagner documents, indicating the former policeman joined the
   Kremlin-tied private army in 2016. The newspaper named the man as
   "Stanislav D" but has withheld his family name, fearing reprisals
   against his relatives.

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