In the southern Russian town of Ipatovo, a few dozen residents observed a minute of silence for 27 local men killed in the invasion of Ukraine as an outdoor memorial board in their honor was ceremoniously unveiled.
Among the attendees of the August 15 ceremony organized by the local Communist Party branch were relatives of the deceased, local officials, and boys and girls from the Pioneers, a patriotic youth movement named after the prominent and pervasive Soviet-era organization.
In a post on its website, the Communist Party said the goal of the event was to "know, remember, and be proud of" the men who were killed in battle. But one of them was a convicted killer, and the honor bestowed upon him has blown up in their faces.
Among the men pictured on the memorial board was Nadir Gizatullin, a repeat offender convicted of murder in the brutal 2018 killing of Pavel Porokhnya, an electrical engineer employed by the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police. Prosecutors said Gizatullin had been drinking heavily when he attacked Porokhnya, who was 35.
Gizatullin was serving a 19-year sentence for the crime when he agreed, as have tens of thousands of other Russian convicts, to fight in Ukraine in exchange for his release from prison should he survive a stint at the front. Like many others, he was recruited by the mercenary group Wagner before its chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, died in a suspicious plane crash two months after leading a brief but stunning mutiny against Russia's military leadership in June.
The return of convicts from the war -- dead or alive -- is causing controversy across Russia as the government recognizes them as heroes while victims and families suffering as a result of their preinvasion crimes stew in anger.
There have been several cases of Russian families expressing outrage that the convicted killer of a loved one has been released and amnestied because they completed a tour of duty in Ukraine, and some neighborhoods live in fear of violent returnees. When former inmates don't survive their stint in the war, some families are irate over the state honors bestowed upon them.
Gizatullin, who died earlier this year, was posthumously awarded a state medal for courage before being honored on the board in Ipatovo, which is in the Stavropol region.
Murder victim Pavel Porokhnya's father, Vitaly Porokhnya, told local media earlier this month that the recognition of Gizatullin was an offense to his family. "I will personally tear down this photo and sue for insulting the memory of my son," he said.
Grigory Kozhedub, a representative of the local Internal Ministry veterans' association, offered his support, saying in a letter to the Ipatovo city administration that honoring Gizatullin was an "insult to family and close friends."
Grisly Murder
At trial, the court found that on April 1, 2018, Gizatullin, in a drunken state, tried hailing a cab in the village of Grachevka, about 85 kilometers southwest of Ipatovo.
Porokhnya, who was off-duty at the time, pulled over in his Ford Focus and offered to drive Gizatullin to his destination. Prior to the rollout of taxi apps, it was very common for Russians seeking to make a little extra money to pick up people hailing rides on the roadside. The practice is still common in rural and remote areas where few drivers are registered on apps.
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The court found that Gizatullin gave Porokhnya a fake address and then stabbed him from behind at least 10 times upon arrival, killing him. Prosecutors said he put the victim's body in the trunk and drove the car around for a few days.
Porokhnya's body was discovered only after Gizatullin had crashed the car and fled the scene, local media reported. He was later found, convicted, and sentenced in January 2019 to 19 years in prison.
Before Porokhnya's killing, Gizatullin had served four years in prison for his role in a 2008 robbery in which he was found guilty of breaking into a home with a friend, who fatally shot the homeowner.
Gizatullin joined the ranks of Wagner mercenaries on October 1, 2022, and was soon thrown into the Russian assault on the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the site of some of the deadliest and most protracted fighting since Russia launched the full-scale invasion that February.
Gizatullin was killed on January 7, one of about 20,000 Russian convicts who have died in the fighting over Bakhmut.
Russian convicts say they have been sent into fierce battles unprepared and undersupplied. Western military experts have said that Russia wants to protect its best fighters as well as mobilized men and uses convicts as cannon fodder to wear down Ukrainian forces.
Communist Response
When contacted by local media to comment on the controversy caused by the placement of Gizatullin's portrait on the honor board, Olga Kholodova, first secretary of the local Communist Party, quoted President Vladimir Putin as saying that convicts who fought in Ukraine had "atoned for their guilt."
On June 13, Putin confirmed he signed a decree absolving convicts of their crimes, saying, "the state must do everything to fulfill its obligations" to those who agreed to serve on the front.
Kholodova claimed the Russian military, law enforcement, and military veterans' organizations supported the inclusion of Gizatullin's portrait. RFE/RL could not reach Kholodova for comment and could not immediately confirm her reported remarks.
Nikolai Golubev, a lawyer for the local Communist Party branch, told RFE/RL that the party only knew that Gizatullin had been a combatant and had no other information about his biography. He claimed the party can't remove Gizatullin's portrait because the honor board is not its property and that the memorial was the initiative of local party members, not the party itself.
Golubev also claimed the city administration had also included Gizatullin's portrait in its own separate memorial board, which was erected in September, but later removed it.
A city official who asked not to be named confirmed to RFE/RL that the Ipatovo administration had received a complaint about the memorial wall but declined to comment further.
Gizatullin's photo on the Communist memorial board was ripped up earlier this month but the party said it was working to replace it.
Vitaly Porokhnya told local media he can't understand the authorities' logic for honoring violent criminals.
"What kind of forgiveness can there be for murderers and rapists? I can understand forgiving a petty crime. But to take my son's life with a stab in the back...and now the authorities say that [serving in the war] rehabilitates everyone? Who has absolved him of his crime before our family?" he said. "I have not forgiven him, and I never will."
