A former Wagner mercenary who fought for Russia in Ukraine has been elected speaker of a local parliament in the Perm region amid controversy over hundreds of reports about crimes committed by returning members of the group.
The head of the Krasnovishersk city district, Yevgeny Vereshchagin, said on September 24 that Mikhail Ostryansky had been voted in as the chairman of the district’s parliament.
The result appears to hand Ostryansky, a 65-year-old former police officer, the highest position currently held by a returning soldier since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said those fighting in Ukraine must become "Russia's new elite" and allowed to occupy state posts.
SEE ALSO: Ukraine Live Briefing: 3 Children Among Dead In Sumy, OdesaGeneral elections in early September saw more than 300 people who have taken part in Russia's aggression against Ukraine elected as lawmakers across the country. The majority of them were elected via lists of the ruling United Russia party.
But the reintegration of hundreds of soldiers -- many of whom joined the war as part of a deal to have their prison sentences commuted -- has proven problematic.
Hundreds of cases of violent crimes, including murders and sexual attacks, have been committed by former Wagner mercenaries and other military personnel after returning from the war in Ukraine.
Courts in Russia tend to hand mitigated sentences to such people, citing their "patriotism" and "contributions" they made to Russia's war against Ukraine.
Wagner's late leader and founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in late June 2023 that 32,000 former inmates recruited by his group from prison had returned home after being granted clemency as part of their remuneration for fighting in Ukraine.
SEE ALSO: Storm Gladiator: How Russia Uses Recruited Convicts To Fight In 'Fierce' Assault Units In UkraineIn October 2023, the presidential administration urged state-run media outlets to refrain from covering crimes committed by individuals who returned from the war in Ukraine.
In January, amid the increasing number of crimes committed by participants in the Ukrainian conflict, Putin ended the practice of exonerating people recruited to the war from prisons.
Such people instead were officially granted "a release on parole," while their criminal records not cleared.