Russian escaped deserter or citizen: Armenia`s prosecutor`s office to  investigate

ArmInfo. The General Prosecutor's Office of Armenia received a report of a crime on the  case of the detention by military police of the 102nd Russian military base of RF citizen Dmitry Setrakov, allegedly living in Gyumri.

As reported by the Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia, the crime  report was submitted by Artur Sakunts, Chairman of the Helsinki  Citizens' Assembly-Vanadzor.

"The Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia received a report of a  crime. In accordance with Armenian legislation, the report was  followed by an actual investigation," the press service of the  Prosecutor General's Office stated.  Days earlier, Chairman of the  Helsinki Citizens' Assembly-Vanadzor, Artur Sakunts, reported that 

Russian Dmitry Setrakov was detained in northwestern Armenia on  December 7. According to human rights activists, Setrakov, who  escaped from the Russian army and managed to leave the country, was  taken to the territory of the 102nd military base of the Russian  armed forces in Gyumri. From there, they threaten to return him to  his homeland, where a criminal case is pending against him.  Meanwhile, as sources in the security forces told ArmInfo, the  incident with the detention took place not in Gyumri, but at Yerevan  Zvartnots airport.

According to sources, Setrakov is a contract serviceman of the  Russian Armed Forces. He was on a Russian special military operation  (SMO) for a while, where he was wounded in the shoulder and was  hospitalized.  After rehabilitation, the medical commission declared  him fit for military service and he had to return to the military  unit. However, Setrakov did not want to continue his service, and hid  for a long time. Moreover, he contacted representatives of the I Want  to Live Ukrainian project (a Ukrainian state project on voluntary  surrender and treatment of prisoners of war for military personnel of  the Russian Federation and Belarus).

The latter suggested Setrakov to go to Armenia for some time. After  that, they transferred supervision over the military personnel to the  Go by the Forest and The Ark projects.  According to sources,  Setrakov was detained at the Yerevan airport due to the fact that he  was behaving strangely. He arrived in the country on December 4 on a  flight from Minsk. "At the border control, he was unable to clearly  explain the purpose of his arrival in the country. During the check,  it turned out that Setrakov is an active serviceman of the Southern  Military District (which includes the 102nd Russian military base)  and is wanted under Part 5 of Article 337 of the Criminal Code of the  Russian Federation "Unauthorized abandonment of a unit or place of  service for more than one month."

Setrakov already told representatives of the 102nd Russian military  base that he had escaped from a military unit, following the  instructions of one of the pro-Ukrainian Telegram channels.

Currently, Setrakov is in the territory of the 102nd Russian military  base. An investigation is being carried out as part of a criminal  case," sources note.

It is noteworthy that the Go by the Forest project also mentions the   fact of its control over Setrakov.  "We know about this Dmitry well,   because we literally took him out of Russia a week ago, and we  learned about his detention on December 7 from his wife, whom he  called on speakerphone, having already been detained. He said that  the people who detained him, introduced themselves as Armenian  military police, although, apparently, they were Russian military,"  said  Go by the Forest founder Grigory Sverdlin,

According to information from Armenian human rights activists,  Setrakov was taken to the territory of the Russian military base in  Gyumri. Russian military investigators have already opened a criminal  case against him under the article on leaving his place of service  for a period of more than one month during the period of mobilization  or combat operations (Part 5 of Article 337 of the Criminal Code of  the Russian Federation). For this he faces from 5 to 10 years in  prison. According to Sakunts, the investigation is being conducted by  the 519th Military Investigation Department, which is located on the  territory of Armenia.  According to the Go by the Forest project,  which helped a serviceman leave Russian territory after he deserted  from the army, Setrakov was mobilized from the Rostov region in  September 2022. In April 2023, he left his unit without permission,  hid in Russia for six months, but then surrendered on October 11 -  since then he has been kept in a military unit of the military police  corps. On November 30, Setrakov escaped from Russia.