Ilya Chizh, a municipal councilor from Alapaevsk in the Sverdlovsk region, has reportedly joined the Wagner private military company in an attempt to avoid serving time for assaulting two individuals with a baseball bat. The EAN newspaper broke the story on June 5.
On June 2nd, the court handed down a two-year sentence to Ilya Chizh, who was found guilty of intentionally causing severe bodily harm. The incident occurred in April 2022 when the elected official assaulted two individuals with a baseball bat in a courtyard in Alapaevsk.
One of the victims reported that Chizh ran his car over the man’s leg. Subsequently, the councilor exited the vehicle and struck the man twice with the bat. The victim’s cousin came to his defense, but Chizh also attacked him. Despite the man’s attempt to flee, the councilor chased him and continued to deliver more blows. At the hospital, the man was diagnosed with fractures in his skull and cheekbone.
Chizh dismissed the accusation as "nonsense" on his social media page. However, he failed to appear during the verdict announcement, leading the court to declare him as wanted.
According to EAN, Chizh had made multiple requests to join the Wagner Group throughout the trial. However, his applications were denied due to the absence of a court decision. Following the verdict, Chizh was accepted into the PMC.
The councilor posted a photo of himself in camouflage attire on his VKontakte social network with his name changed to "Christian Grey."
Several former and current local legislators and officials have joined the conflict in Ukraine. Some of them were facing criminal charges. In early May, regional legislator from Ryazan Nikita Usachev left to join the army just two days before his fraud trial. On May 27th, it was reported that the investigation into the case of negligence leading to the deaths of three individuals and involving former city councilor from Novosibirsk Yevgeny Panfyorov had been suspended. The former elected official had also gone to war.
