An officer in Vladimir Putin’s security service who refused to massacre Ukrainians and instead fled to Kazakhstan was deported to Russia.
Commander Mikhail Zhilin, 36, denounced the war and now faces up to 15 years in prison and torture, says his wife, Ekaterina.
The Federal Protective Service [FSO] official had access to Russian state secrets, including Putin’s own communications, it is reported.
He walked through the forests to reach the neighboring state of Kazakhstan, but his asylum application was rejected.
As an FSO officer, he was not allowed to travel abroad and was prevented from having a passport.
He fled when he was due to be transferred to the war zone where he would have been ‘forced’ to ‘kill Ukrainian citizens.’
‘I gave the obligation to defend the freedom and independence of my homeland, the Russian Federation, within its borders, and not to carry out aggressive military operations as part of the armed forces of my country to seize the territories of another state,’ he said.
‘Kazakh authorities took in tens of thousands of Russians fleeing the war, but showed no leniency to Zhilin and he was secretly returned to Russia, the reports say.
Since he was deported this week at the hands of Russian law enforcement, he has disappeared, said his wife Ekaterina, 35, who says he is likely to face torture for fleeing Russia or be sent to fight in the war.
A court statement in the Kazakhstani capital Astana said: ‘I was an engineer at the FSO Special Communications and Information Center in Novosibirsk.’
‘He handled government communications, which means he had access to [Russian] state secrets.
Zhilin has relatives in the Kherson region of Ukraine.
