Criminal case opened versus deserter with arms in Ryazan region

"The detectives found out that on October 14 a unit, in which a private Viktor Zavyalov served, went on an inlaying picket. He went at 8 pm on guard of a rocket artillery depot located at the premises of the military unit. Zavyalov was reported to escape, when a relief commander with a guardsman of a new shift arrived at the post. The private was found to escape with a submachine gun AK-74, two loaded magazines and a bayonet," a source in the military investigation department of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office Investigation Committee (SKP) told Itar-Tass on Friday.

"According to the guard service, no strangers broke onto the premises of the military unit on that day. No traces of fighting were found at the incident site," the source said.

The SKP military investigation department in the Ryazan garrison opened a criminal case versus a private, who passed the military service in a separate railway battalion, for deserting with weapons.

"If during the preliminary investigation the detectives will find out that Zavyalov, 18, left the post without permission, he can face ten years in prison," the source said.

Viktor Zavyalov has not been found yet, press secretary of the commander of the troops in the Western Military District Yaroslav Roshchupkin told Itar-Tass on Friday. "The military district headquarters have formed an operative group headed by the chief of staff. Alongside, an investigation committee is working in a railway troops unit, where the private served. The command of the unit jointly with the prosecutor's office, the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service are searching for the deserter," Roshchupkin said.

The police in the Ryazan Region turned to residents of Ryazan and the corresponding region for help to find a serviceman, who deserted his post. A private Viktor Zavyalov, who was conscripted in April, deserted at about 10 pm on October 14 from a military unit deployed in the town of Rybnoye, the regional police reported. He is armed with a submachine gun, in the camouflage with a bullet proof life vest and a helmet on.