We previously wrote about Dmitry Utkin, one of the leaders of the Wagner Group, whom various sources have linked to the title Hero of Russia.
But the ranks of Russia’s new “heroes” continue to grow.
On June 11, 2026, Colonel Ramil Faskhutdinov, call sign “Mamai,” commander of the 5th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, was awarded the Gold Star of Hero of Russia. Servicemen and their relatives had previously accused the brigade’s command of extortion, “zeroing out” soldiers, torture, and sending severely wounded men into assaults. (meduza.io)
Marina Mamitova, the sister of missing serviceman Dzatte Mamitov, says through tears:
“A man who extorted money. A man who had our guys ‘zeroed out,’ an invalid, receives the Gold Star of Hero of Russia.”
She finds it bitterly unfair: others gave their lives and received nothing, while a man she accuses of extortion, “zeroing out” soldiers, and sending disabled servicemen into assaults receives the country’s highest state decoration.
And she asks a question: is this fair?
Let us try to answer it.
According to Marina, this is not only about her brother. She describes extortion, “zeroing out” servicemen, and sending disabled soldiers into assaults as a practice under this command.
Dzatte is only one example. After being seriously wounded, he could barely walk on his own, yet he was sent back to the front, where he later went missing.
This is where the central mechanism appears: impunity turns power over another person’s life into money.
A commander decides who will be sent into an assault, who will be allowed to receive treatment, and who will get leave.
And everything acquires a price.
Don’t want to go into an assault — pay.
Want leave — pay.
Don’t pay — there is always the front line.
Russian servicemen have told Meduza about extortion ranging from tens of thousands to several million rubles in exchange for avoiding a potentially deadly assault, obtaining leave, or securing favorable treatment from commanders. (meduza.io)
The threat of death becomes a tool of extortion.
Power creates impunity, impunity creates opportunities to make money, and money intensifies brutality.
Faskhutdinov was close enough to the top of the power structure to report personally to Putin, and a few months later he received the title Hero of Russia. This could very well have reinforced the sense that he had support at the top and therefore was unlikely to be held accountable for what was happening below. (meduza.io)
And this is where the old principle applies: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The less power is constrained by law and accountability, the further a person can go. At the level of a commander, this means power over the lives of subordinates; at the top of the state, the same mechanism operates with almost no restraints left.
So, Marina, if we use an ordinary understanding of justice, what is happening looks completely inverted.
But within such a power vertical, the logic is different.
A person does not necessarily have to be rewarded specifically for “zeroing out” soldiers. It is enough that such practices do not stand in the way of an award.
Faskhutdinov’s story is only one example.
At the bottom, a person pays for a chance not to be sent into an assault.
Above him, a commander controls his life.
Higher still, the system is in no hurry to intervene.
Human life thus becomes both an expendable resource and a commodity.
And the scale of the losses does not mean that this machine will stop.
If another 100,000 people are needed, 100,000 will be found.
If another 1 million are needed, they will look for 1 million.
If new age groups are needed, the rules will be changed.
And against this background, something else looks particularly grotesque.
While some human lives are being spent in war, Vladimir Putin is seriously interested in the question of how to extend human life as much as possible.
On September 3, 2025, before the parade in Beijing, open microphones accidentally recorded a conversation between Putin and Xi Jinping. Putin discussed biotechnology, repeated organ transplantation, and the possibility of approaching immortality. Xi spoke about forecasts suggesting that humans might live to 150. (meduza.io)
And this interest has already become surrounded by state programs and familiar names.
Mikhail Kovalchuk, head of the Kurchatov Institute and a close friend of Putin, was named by three sources in a Meduza and Sistema investigation as a possible lobbyist for longevity research.
His brother Yuri Kovalchuk belongs to Putin’s inner circle. Mikhail Kovalchuk already oversees a federal genetic research program in which Maria Vorontsova, Vladimir Putin’s eldest daughter, also participates. (meduza.io)
And here the same mechanism appears again, only now it concerns state money rather than human lives.
The more money the state pours into a field that is especially important to those at the very top, the closer people from the ruling inner circle move to the distribution of that money.
The higher such a project rises through the power vertical, the more money can remain in structures close to power, the less reaches the actual researchers, and the weaker responsibility for the final result becomes.
At that point corruption begins to destroy not only the budget, but the result itself.
Money does not necessarily go to those who are best at doing science, but to those closest to the people distributing it. The actual researchers receive less, competition disappears, responsibility becomes blurred — and with it, the probability of a genuine scientific breakthrough declines.
More billions can be allocated.
The right institute can be selected.
Trusted people can be put in charge.
But through its own inefficiency, corruption can destroy the very thing those billions were supposedly meant to produce: a real result.
And that is the central irony.
Money can be made from someone else’s life.
Your own cannot be bought at any price. Especially if your friends got the money.
Your own cannot be bought at any price. Especially if your friends got the money.Source: Telegram channel “Ne zhdi khoroshikh novostey” (“Don’t Expect Good News”): https://t.me/ne_zhdi_novosti/7435
Source: Meduza — “You Are All Millionaires. You Are All Corpses” — on extortion, payments to commanders, and paying to avoid being sent to the front line: https://meduza.io/feature/2026/04/13/vy-vse-millionery-vy-vse-trupy
Source: Important Stories — on Ramil Faskhutdinov, “zeroing out” soldiers, and sending disabled servicemen into assaults in the 5th Brigade: https://istories.media/news/2026/06/11/medal-geroya-rossii-vruchili-komandiru-5-i-donetskoi-brigadi-on-izvesten-obnuleniyami/
Source: Meduza — “At the Beijing Parade, Putin and Xi Discussed the Prospects of Living to 150 and Even Immortality”: https://meduza.io/feature/2025/09/10/na-parade-v-pekine-putin-i-si-obsudili-perspektivy-zhizni-do-150-let-i-dazhe-bessmertiya-u-nih-i-pravda-est-osnovaniya-verit-v-takie-prognozy
Source: Meduza / Sistema — “The Whims of an Aging Politburo” — on anti-aging programs, Mikhail and Yuri Kovalchuk, Maria Vorontsova, and state-funded longevity research: https://meduza.io/feature/2024/09/02/prichudy-stareyuschego-politbyuro/