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Russia offers reward for info leading to arrest of Azov soldier who coined Ukraine’s ‘Putin is a dickhead!’ slogan — Meduza [1]
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Date: 2022-08-24
Russia’s Interior Ministry is offering a reward of 1 million rubles (roughly $16,700) for information leading to the arrest of two commanding officers in Kharkiv’s Azov territorial defense battalions, including Serhiy Velychko, who famously authored the “Putin khuylo!” (Putin is a dickhead!) slogan popularized by local soccer fans in March 2014.
Russian officials have accused Velychko and another officer named Kostyantyn Nemichev of involvement in the torture and murder of at least eight Russian soldiers captured in the Kharkiv region. (In May, a Russian court arrested Velychko and Nemichev in absentia.)
Officials in Moscow once claimed to have Velychko and Nemichev in custody. In late March, State Duma deputy Vladimir Shamanov said the two Azov commanders were “begging for mercy” after being apprehended by Russian special forces. Velychko soon refuted the claim, responding, “I am indeed in captivity — the captivity of sick fantasies of disturbed persons in a neighboring country.”
Ukrainian police arrested Velychko and several other prominent figures in the Azov movement in August 2021 on racketeering charges, but Velychko and numerous other prisoners were reportedly released in late February 2022 to join the war effort against invading Russian troops.
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[1] Url:
https://www.meduza.io/en/news/2022/08/24/russia-offers-reward-for-info-leading-to-arrest-of-azov-soldier-who-coined-ukraine-s-putin-is-a-dickhead-slogan
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