A convicted felon suspected of firing at Russian police with a machine gun in a region bordering Ukraine has been detained, investigators said on Wednesday.
Separately, a Telegram channel close to Russia’s security services said the 38-year-old suspect was a member of the Wagner mercenary group whose forces have been at the forefront of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.
The man has been detained in the village of Kiselyovo in the southern Rostov region bordering Ukraine, said the Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes.
The man is suspected of shooting at police officers with a machine gun and injuring one of them in the city of Novoshakhtinsk on Tuesday, investigators said.
The suspect was detained after a nearly 24-hour manhunt.
He had been convicted of “theft and robbery”, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
BAZA Telegram channel, which is close to Russian security services, said the suspect had been serving his sentence for “theft and robbery” in a penal colony in the city of Ufa when he was recruited by Wagner to fight in Ukraine.
He later changed his mind and “deserted”, the Telegram channel said.
Wagner’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is believed to have personally toured Russian prisons to recruit fighters, neither confirmed nor denied the report.
Prigozhin thanked the police officers who arrested the man and said his team would conduct its own investigation.
But he also said that instead of leaking information to journalists Russian policemen should go to the front in Ukraine.
In his tongue-in-cheek written statement, Prigozhin seemingly compared the deserter to Sylvester Stallone’s troubled Vietnam veteran in “Rambo”.
“Is it necessary to provoke a man with a machine gun, or is it better to ask him to surrender the machine gun first?” he added.
Last month Prigozhin denied the group’s involvement in the execution of one of its fighters, after having said the man deserved a “dog’s death”.
