The activist who found the cemetery of PMC “Wagner” in the Kuban left Russia

Vitaly Votanovsky, a resident of Kuban, leading the search for new Russian soldiers and mercenaries of PMC “Wagner” killed in Ukraine, left Russia. He informed the editors of Kavkaz.Realii about this. On April 4, he flew to Armenia, and from there went to Georgia.

According to the editorial source, the activity of Votanovsky, who was the first to report on his social networks that a cemetery with the graves of PMC “Wagner” fighters killed in Ukraine, many of whom were recruited prisoners, had appeared in the village of Bakinskaya in the Krasnodar region, angered the representatives of the private military company. The source suggested that during one of the visits to the cemetery, violence could have been used against Votanovsky.

In September, Votanovsky was detained by the police when he was investigating another cemetery in Tikhoretsk. After a discussion with the staff of the Center for Countering Extremism, the activist was released. Before that, in relation to Votanovsky, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs began an investigation under the article about the publication of a funeral due to photographs of graves.

In January, the local publication Zhivaya Kuban published an article in which Votanovsky was called a “foreign agent” and a “supporter of Zelensky”. The author of the article claimed that he knew the activist’s home address and called for him to be held accountable.

• Vitaly Votanovsky is a military pensioner, a retired lieutenant colonel, and also a former volunteer of the Krasnodar headquarters of Alexei Navalny. He was repeatedly detained and fined for participating in protest actions, including rallies and pickets against the war in Ukraine. In addition, the activist was searched several times.
• In total, Votanovsky discovered 1,400 buried Russian soldiers and mercenaries in the Krasnodar region and Adygea. Of them, 607 graves are in a separate cemetery in the village of Bakinskaya, where the fighters of PMC “Wagner” are buried unclaimed by their next of kin.
• Over the past two months, hundreds of new graves have appeared at this cemetery. This is evidenced by satellite images of the Maxar company, published by The New York Times journalist Christian Tribert.
• PMC “Wagner” is a Russian unofficial military unit whose fighters have taken part or are taking part in military operations in Syria, Africa and Ukraine. The Russian authorities call the mercenaries of PMC “Wagner” – volunteers.
• At the end of March, amendments came into force, extending criminal liability for so-called discrediting and fakes to negative publications about volunteers.