Kazakh Forced To Join Russia's Wagner Mercenary Group In Ukraine, Mother Says

Wagner headquarters in St. Petersburg, Russia

A Kazakh student at Tomsk State University in Siberia, Marghulan Bekenov, was forced to join the Russian private mercenary group Wagner in March, his mother says. Almira Bekenova told RFE/RL on April 20 that after she learned about her son's ordeal, she travelled to a Wagner base in Russia, where Marghulan told her that he had not signed any contract. Bekenova added that her son had been sent to the front in Ukraine on April 12. Official complaints sent by Bekenov's family has yet to receive any response to official complaints made to the military prosecutors and Interior ministries of Kazakhstan and Russia. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities, click here.