Russian MP flees to war as part of PMC Wagner forces after being sentenced to two years behind bars for assaulting two people

In the Alapayevskoye city district, Yekaterinburg region of Russia, local MP Ilya Chizh has joined PMC Wagner and gone to war immediately after being sentenced to two years in a penal colony over the charges of assaulting two people, media outlet EAN reports, citing sources familiar with the situation.

According to the investigation, the incident Chizh was tried for had taken place on 20 April 2022. Allegedly, a passer-by, upon seeing the MP’s car, imitated the car running over his foot. Chizh exited his car with a bat in his hands and hit the man twice, in the head and in the body, the prosecutor’s office reported. Then, the victim’s brother got involved — the MP hit him in the head four times.

The doctors declared that the brother had a skull base fracture, a cheekbone fracture, and wounds on his scalp.

According to the sources, Chizh kept trying to find a way to enter the PMC and go to the Ukraine war while the investigation and the trial were occurring, but he kept getting rejections, seeing as there was no sentence declared.

“Now there’s a sentence, and he was welcomed with open arms. There’s not enough people on the front line, and Chizh has great military training. I think PMC Wagner won’t be giving him back. Chizh changed the name of his VK profile to Christian Grey and has already chosen a new profile pic — an image of a PMC fighter,” the source said.

The MP did not come to the sentencing, he was put on the wanted list, EAN reports. Chizh was found guilty of intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm with the use of weapons.

This is not the first case of an MP going to the Ukraine war to escape their sentence. For example, on 11 May, newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda Ryazan reported that local deputy Nikita Usachyov went to war two days before his sentencing — he was charged with fraud.

In March, the police put Rustyam Abushayev, Mayor of Russian town Bolshoy Kamen, on the wanted list because of his land fraud charges, but the man went to war, so the court cancelled his arrest.