Rauf Arashukov faced refusals to send to the SVO

The former senator from Karachay-Cherkessia tried unsuccessfully several times to secure a contract with the Ministry of Defense to send him to the military operation zone. His lawyer linked the refusals to the fact that Arashukov was sentenced to life imprisonment.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, in October 2024, the former senator from Karachay-Cherkessia Rauf Arashukov demanded to be transferred to a colony in Mordovia, stating that he was being tortured and provoked in the "Black Dolphin" colony in the Orenburg region. Following his complaint, the prosecutor's office conducted an inspection of the colony and found no violations.

The main thing about the Arashukov case

Rauf Arashukov repeatedly applied to sign a contract with the Defense Ministry to be sent to the military operation zone, but each time he was refused, Arashukov's lawyer Elmar told TASS Alizade.

"He filed his first application while he was still in [Moscow's pretrial detention center] Lefortovo. After that, he repeatedly attempted to sign a contract with the Defense Ministry. Arashukov even wrote an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, Arashukov never received consent to participate in the SVO," the agency quotes Alizade as saying today.

Usually in such cases, prisoners are denied a contract.

The lawyer believes that the reason for the refusals is the severity of the articles under which Arashukov was convicted and his life sentence. "He has a criminal record under Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, 'Creation of a criminal group.' In addition, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Usually, in such cases, prisoners are denied a contract with the Ministry of Defense," said Elmar Alizade.

The arrested, with the exception of those involved in cases of treason, terrorism, extremism, and fakes about the army, have the opportunity to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense and end up in the military operation zone, and their criminal prosecution is terminated, human rights activists said earlier. According to them, this has already led to the creation of a "conveyor belt of impunity." "You can commit a crime, sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense, serve some time in the SVO zone, return - and do it all over again. The exceptions are crimes against the regime," human rights activist Maxim Vedaprava told the "Caucasian Knot."

For example, former Sochi mayor Alexei Kopaigorodsky, who in October 2024, while under arrest, tried to go to the military operation zone, was refused. From the response received by the lawyer to the request to suspend the criminal case and send him to the SVO zone, it followed that the approval of sending him to the military operation zone is the right, not the obligation of the investigator.

Recall that in October 2024, a request for help addressed to Ramzan Kadyrov was published on Rauf Arashukov's social network page. This appeal was prompted by the desire to receive support and achieve a mitigation of the sentence, analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" explained.

Earlier, Caucasus experts indicated that people who are significantly higher than Ramzan Kadyrov, with whom Rauf Arashukov was friends, are behind the collapse of the Arashukov clan. The Arashukov clan emerged as part of a special services project, and its downfall was solely due to criminal prosecution, they believe.

According to investigators, Raul Arashukov instructed his son to organize the murders of the deputy chairman of the Adyghe-Khase movement Aslan Zhukov and the adviser to the head of Karachay-Cherkessia Fral Shebzukhov. Rauf Arashukov, in turn, ordered high-ranking security officials not to investigate Zhukov's murder. You can read more about the murders that Rauf Arashukov is accused of organizing in the "Caucasian Knot" report "High-profile murders in Karachay-Cherkessia".