"Novaya Gazeta": Cossack Roman Zabolotniy killed for Syrian oil

Cossack Roman Zabolotniy from the Rostov Region went to Syria to protect oil fields. Contractors have to fight off targets from militants, and the former paratrooper who was captured together with Roman Zabolotniy was involved in a battle for oil, the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" reports.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that according to Victor Vodolatsky, the former ataman of the All-Great Don Cossack Army, a member of the State Duma, Roman Zabolotniy was executed after he had refused to become a militant.

Roman Zabolotniy and Grigory Tsurkanu were contract fighters of a private military company known as the "Wagner's Private Military Company", the "Novaya Gazeta" reports in its website.

According to the newspaper, Roman Zabolotniy arrived in Syria in May, while Grigory Tsurkanu went to Syria for the first time as a member of the "Slavonic Corps" in September 2013.

The "Novaya Gazeta" has found out that on September 28, the Russian citizens were captured during battles after negotiations on a temporary ceasefire between the leaders of the Kurdish paramilitary forces "Peshmerga" with the leaders of the "Fedayeen Saddam", the most professional part of the IS (the grouping is banned in Russia).

After being released from the militants, oil fields controlled by the IS will be developed by the Russian Limited Liability Company (LLC) "Euro Polis".

The online newspaper "Fontanka" has found out that the "Euro Polis" is a company affiliated with Yevgeny Prigozhin, a well-known businessman from Saint Petersburg.

According to the "Novaya Gazeta", the "Slavonic Corps" was formed by the Moscow-based "Slavonic Corps Limited" Company, registered in Hong Kong.

The company recruited 267 volunteers under a contract with the Syrian Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources to protect oil production facilities. Grigory Tsurkanu and Dmitry Utkin, the future commander of the "Wagner's Private Military Company", were among the volunteers, the newspaper reports.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.