In Kursk For Bribes Promised Service In PMCs Instead Of The Russian Defense Ministry And Killed Dissatisfied People
- 2.04.2026, 9:12
The story has a "Belarusian footprint."
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and the FSB are investigating the activities of the private military company "Yastreb" and its founder Alexei Marushchenko, who together with accomplices deceived at least 95 people. According to the investigation, Marushchenko promised the victims to serve in the PMC, but eventually embezzled their money, and killed the dissatisfied. As "Kommersant" has learned, all the defendants in the case are now in custody and face charges of large-scale fraud, extortion, murder, illegal trafficking of weapons and explosives.
According to the law enforcers, the recruiters promised those wishing to enter the contract service that they would serve not in units of the Ministry of Defense, but in the PMC "Yastreb" - with more favorable conditions. Future contractors had to pay for this. However, as established by the Main Military Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the money of recruits (the total amount is not disclosed), the organizers embezzled the money, no service in PMCs they did not provide, and the people who signed the contract ended up in ordinary military units.
In the course of the investigation it turned out that the gang was not limited to financial fraud. To the main case were added episodes of extortion from one of the servicemen, who was taken to the forest, handcuffed to a tree and held for three days at gunpoint, as well as the premeditated murder of a group of persons and theft of weapons.
On charges of the latter crime, in addition to the leaders of PMCs, was detained head of district commissioners of the Department of Internal Affairs in Rylsk district of Kursk region, police lieutenant colonel Igor Dushkin. The case was later dropped, but Dushkin was charged with illegal possession of weapons and ammunition, explosives and improvised explosive devices.
In 2020, PMC Yastreb fighters were detained in Belarus on suspicion of preparing a coup d'état, but they were later handed over to Russia. Earlier, Marushchenko, who calls himself a GRU officer and a participant in the second Chechen campaign, also created the PMCs Mar and Velyvye Lyudi.