A Moscow court has placed two members of Russia’s National Guard under arrest for their alleged involvement with a group that has carried out more than 30 contract killings since 1998, independent news outlet Mediazona reported on Thursday.
Alexey Alpatov and Sergey Volostnykh are both now in pre-trial detention on multiple murder charges. Both men have insisted they are innocent.
“I am not involved in the murder. I am loyal to my oath and homeland, which I have repeatedly proved in the special military operation zone," Alpatov said.
Three others were reportedly arrested in connection to the same case, one of whom, Dmitry Kushakov, was a conscript who was deployed to fight in Ukraine last December. In court, he said that since July he had been receiving treatment in Moscow after being shot in the shoulder.
On Wednesday, the Interior Ministry reported the detention of 15 members of a group that specialised in contract killings. The men have all been charged with 30 counts of murder, including that of an adviser to the Minister of Railways, the kidnapping and murder of a businessman and his accountant, and the murders of several criminal bosses in 2002 and 2003.