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Duckhunter935

(16,974 posts)
Sat May 30, 2015, 03:51 PM May 2015

Russian fighters, caught in Ukraine, cast adrift by Moscow

From his hospital bed in the Ukrainian capital, Russian fighter Alexander Alexandrov feels abandoned by his country, its leaders and even the local Russian consul.

Alexandrov, 28, says he's a Russian soldier who was captured in east Ukraine after being sent there on active duty with Russian special forces to help separatists fighting Kiev. He said he was serving on a three-year contract. "I never tore it up, I wrote no resignation request," he said. "I was carrying out my orders."

Yet Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the face of widespread evidence to the contrary, has repeatedly said there are no Russian soldiers in Ukraine – only volunteers who have gone to help the separatists of their own accord.

So Alexandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev, another Russian who was captured with him, find themselves pawns in the deepest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.


http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/05/29/uk-ukraine-crisis-captured-specialreport-idUKKBN0OE0XK20150529

Good read
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Russian fighters, caught in Ukraine, cast adrift by Moscow (Original Post) Duckhunter935 May 2015 OP
If you or members of your IM force are caught or captured... HereSince1628 May 2015 #1
Echoes of past treachery. moondust May 2015 #2
Yes. That was after not wanting to take them back. Igel May 2015 #3

HereSince1628

(36,063 posts)
1. If you or members of your IM force are caught or captured...
Sat May 30, 2015, 05:11 PM
May 2015

the secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions.

moondust

(19,917 posts)
2. Echoes of past treachery.
Sat May 30, 2015, 05:12 PM
May 2015

I think Stalin used to kill or send to the gulags some Soviet soldiers returning from battle in Germany because they had been exposed to the evil ways of the West.

"You've seen too much, comrade. You can't be trusted. No soup for you!"

http://www.thatlineofdarkness.com/2013/11/stalins-post-war-barbarous-treatment.html

Igel

(35,197 posts)
3. Yes. That was after not wanting to take them back.
Sat May 30, 2015, 07:08 PM
May 2015

Paranoia knows no bounds. To him, all of the Russians caught were vlasovtsy.

Google "Vlasov". Many were POWs. Some were recruited from temporarily-ex-Soviet territory. Some were emigres.

By that token, whoever supported overthrowing the Soviet government was the heir of Vlasov. But he had been so reviled for so long that no Russian could bear the designation, so nobody mentioned him. There was also no organized movement that preceded Vlasov on Russian territory, unlike Ukrainians.

Stalin's paranoia knew no bounds. On the other hand, there were Russians who, in fighting the Soviets, were immediately dubbed "fascists" for no other reason than they opposed Uncle Joe. They didn't necessarily support Hitler's fascism--although, to be sure, some did.

(It's rather like saying that all DUers that support Hamas also support their "drive the Jews into the sea" viewpoint coupled with fundamentalist Islam. They see the difference when supporting the enemy of their enemy is up for discussion, but not when the enemy of their enemy's foe is. Group think. How "primative".)

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