HRC asks for thorough investigation into incidents at "Ashuluk" in Astrakhan Region

The Human Rights Council under the Russian President has appealed to the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office and the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) with a request to conduct the more thorough investigation into the cause of the explosion that occurred in August at military training ground "Ashuluk" in the Astrakhan Region and that killed two soldiers.

Let us remind you that on August 14, in the Astrakhan Region, at the military training ground "Ashuluk", when cleaning up the territory of the ammunition, regular soldier Andrei Leonov and Dmitry Reshetov were killed in an explosion. The criminal case was instituted against Lieutenant Vyacheslav Panikorovsky, the commander of a group of military men, under Part 3 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("negligence resulting in death of two or more persons").

In their letters to the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office and the ICRF, participants of the working meeting held on November 22 have stated that investigators should make sure to prepare the indictment which would mention not only the name and the guilt of the Lieutenant, but also the names and the guilt of the military officials, who ordered the battalion to clean the field of ammunition.

"Our appeals are aimed to stop violations. We have sent our appeal to the Supreme Commander-in Chief, the Minister of Defence and the Russian President to make sure that regular soldiers are not involved in such operations. These operations are to be carried out only by professionals," stated Sergey Krivenko, Chair of the Presidential HRC on civil and military relations.