Fullofbias

What a remarkable interview – especially since it appeared on a regional website.
http://www.e1.ru/news/spool/news_id-416966.html

The head of an organization that unites special forces veterans in Yekaterinburg openly talks about his role in sending mercenaries to fight in Ukraine. Vladimir Yefimov calls them volunteers, but admits that they get between $2,000 and $5,000 depending on their rank. “I think people should get paid. They are risking their lives after all. Payments help to attract professionals. They come back with shining eyes – the performed their duty and they are not feeling bitter”, he told E1. He says he helped six groups of 15 to 30 people to reach Donetsk. Two other groups, 30 people in each, went to Luhansk.

Most amazingly, he claims that they travel with “humanitarian convoys” and at least once the Russian Red Cross helped them with papers. “First time they traveled in the guise of Red Cross employees. They received papers from the local bureau. When [the convoy] reached the destination, people stayed. They were given weapons and issued combat orders”, Yefimov says.

It appears to be largely a grassroots initiative, but actively assisted by the state. When Yefimov approached Putin’s envoy to the Urals with a request to institutionalize it, the official refused but thanked him for patriotism.

Yefimov first surfaced during a ceremony in which several people received state awards for fighting in Ukraine. One of them, paratrooper Alexey Zasov was awarded posthumously. The family was not allowed to see the body when his coffin arrived. Relatives were told that he died “while accompanying a humanitarian convoy” in Russia, but soldiers from his unit told them that it happened in Ukraine.