A member of the organized crime group became the “face” of the contract service’s advertising campaign

Igor Shalonin, a resident of the city of Vsevolozhsk, Leningrad Region, sentenced in 2011 to eight years of strict regime for murder, robbery, banditry and illegal possession of weapons, became the “face” of an advertising campaign for contract service in the Russian army. The publication “Vazhney istorii” drew attention to this.

Journalists found several commercials in the network, in which Shalonin talks about the fact that he returned from the zone of the so-called “special military operation” a month ago. He claims that the contractors are there on “good security”, that they are paid “considerable money” on time, and urges “not to listen to anyone” who says otherwise.

As “Important Histories” established, earlier Shalonin was a member of the famous “Ryzhey gang” in St. Petersburg, which was led by a former member of the riot police. At the end of the 2000s, twelve members of this organized crime group were put on trial. Among other things, they were accused of murders, robberies and abductions of people under the guise of “FSB employees” with subsequent extortion. Shalonin, in particular, was found guilty of the murder of one of his accomplices, Alexander Yakubenko.