OAN's Elizabeth Bolbelding
1:20pm – Sunday, January 14, 2024
A former Russian mayor convicted of bribery has had his sentence reduced after agreeing to fight alongside the national army in Ukraine.
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On Sunday, local media reported that former Russian mayor Oleg Gumenyuk had his sentence reduced after signing an agreement to fight Russian forces in Ukraine.
From 2018 to 2021, Gumenyuk served as mayor of Vladivostok, a city and cultural center in the Far East.
Last year, Mr. Gumenyuk was found guilty of accepting bribes totaling 38 million rubles (approximately $432,000) and was sentenced to 12 years in prison as a result.
However, according to his lawyer Andrei Kitayev, Gumenyuk was released after agreeing to fight and bear arms as part of a military operation in Ukraine that began about two years ago, Russian news agency reported. It is said that it was done. Kommersant.
Kitaev said the former mayor's whereabouts are unknown, but he was asked to report to the force on December 22.n.d..
“According to the orders issued to Gumenyuk, he was to report to his unit on December 22nd.n.d.,” Kommersant He quoted Gumenyuk's lawyer as saying.
Photos circulating on social media show a man resembling Gumenyuk holding a gun and surrounded by other military personnel.
In an unprecedented effort to supply troops to Ukraine, Russia sent thousands of prisoners directly from the country's prisons. A prisoner who volunteers to serve at the front for six months is released after returning home.
With the promise of amnesty for those who survived front-line deployments, tens of thousands of Russian prisoners of war voluntarily served in Ukraine.
Authorities have used this strategy before. During World War II, the Soviet Union used “prisoner of war battalions.”
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