A Russian rapist who was released from prison by the Kremlin to take part in Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will be sent back to the front lines after raping a 17-year-old girl at knifepoint.
Yakov Paramonov, 36, attacked a 17-year-old student at knifepoint outside a series of garages in Saransk, western Russia.
A Russian court was told that after attacking the girl, he made her urinate so he could urinate. ‘washing himself’ after the brutal attack. He was given a ten-year sentence in a penal colony after being convicted of ‘rape and violent sexual acts against a minor’.
But he is expected to be pardoned again soon in exchange for another stint on the front lines of Putin’s invasion.
He spent several months in the Wagner Group, formerly led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, before losing his leg in battle, for which he spent a handful of of awards for ‘exemplary performance of combat missions and impeccable service to the fatherland.’
Yakov Paramonov, 36, (pictured) attacked a 17-year-old student with a knife near some garages in Saransk, western Russia
Paramonov worked for the Wagner group (pictured)
A Russian court was accused that after assaulting the girl, he made her urinate so he could ‘wash’ himself after the brutal attack
He was praised for his ‘selflessness and courage, a difficult path of battle, marked by combat, soaked in blood and sweat’.
In 2017, he was jailed for a series of robberies in which he ripped jewelry from women or forced them to hand over their necklaces, bracelets and earrings.
In one such case, he threatened to kill a 24-year-old woman if she did not have sex with him. He was convicted of a violent sexual act, but was given a full pardon by the Russian dictator because he had agreed to fight in the war.
Although the Wagner Group was the first to recruit prisoners for the brutal invasion of Ukraine, this policy was apparently not adopted by the Kremlin until December 2023.
They were often grouped together into so-called Storm-Z units and used as cannon fodder.
Former Wagner leader Prigozhin is known to have visited prisons across Russia to promise convicted criminals that they would be allowed to go home without punishment if they survived the six-month war against Ukraine.
A member of the Storm-Z unit told the US-funded website Sever Realii that Kremlin military recruiters promised the prisoners a salary of 205,000 rubles (about $2,000 or £1,700) a month, a payment of 3 million rubles ($31,000 or £26,000) per injury, and 5 million rubles ($52,000 or £43,000) to be paid to the recruit’s next of kin if they died.
But prisoners were often sent into a ‘total meat grinder’, without being given proper equipment or even told what was happening at the front.
Several soldiers who were released from prison to fight on Putin’s front later went back and committed various crimes, and have since been released.
Former Wagner fighter Ivan Rossomakhin, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the gruesome rape and murder of 85-year-old Yulia Buiskikh, has been allowed to return to the front lines, the victim’s family said.
“Grandma’s killer has – again – escaped his punishment and gone to fight in the war,” Anna Pekareva, Yulia Byuskikh’s granddaughter, told the BBC.
Anna says her governor informed the family on August 19 that Rossomakhin had been released, just a week after his sentence began.
“My first reaction was terror. I read the forensic reports and I know what this person did to my grandmother. It’s monstrous that he was released again,” says Anna, adding: “The fact that this is happening in the 21st century… there are no words that can describe what is happening!”