Yevgeny Rodionov - Career and Capture

Career and Capture

Rodionov was born in the village of Chibirley, Penza Oblast. Though he aspired to be a cook, he was conscripted into the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in 1995. Private Rodionov was deployed to Chechnya, where he served in border troops. On February 13, 1996, he went to mount guard over the road accompanied by privates Andrey Trusov, Igor Yakovlev and Alexander Zheleznov. During the watch they stopped an ambulance, in which brigade general of “Chechen Republic of Ichkeria” Ruslan Khaikhoroev and a dozen of enforcers were transporting weapons. During their attempt to examine the ambulance, young soldiers were overpowered and taken prisoners. After the soldiers were discovered to be missing, they were initially announced as deserters. Military police came home to Yevgeny Rodionov’s mother to search for her missing son. Only later, after detailed survey of the checkpoint the soldiers had been manning, and detection of traces of blood and fighting, the military recognized that the missing soldiers had been taken prisoner. On his 19th birthday Rodionov was beheaded on the outskirts of the Chechen village Bamut. According to his killers, who later extorted money from his mother in exchange for knowledge of the location of his corpse, they beheaded him after he refused to renounce his Christian faith or remove the silver cross he wore around his neck. Ruslan Khaikhoroev later admitted the murder. In presence of foreign representative of OSCE he confessed: «… he had a choice to survive. He could have changed his faith, but he refused to take off his cross. He tried to escape…». On May, 23rd, after 100 days of imprisonment and tortures, Yevgeny Rodionov was again ordered to remove the cross he was wearing and accept Islam. After his refusal Yevgeny Rodionov was beheaded, when still alive. Andrey Trusov shared his fate, while Igor Yakovlev and Alexander Zheleznov were shot dead.