Former Russian military officer Igor Salikov, who has applied to the International Criminal Court to testify about the war crimes of the occupiers, is one of the co-founders of the organisation that launched the Redut mercenary scheme. This was revealed by journalists of Radio Liberty's Sistema and Schemes projects in the investigation "The Redut Trick".
On 18 December, the Russian media outlet Gulagu.net wrote that a Russian military officer had approached the ICC, saying he is willing to testify against the Wagner Group and Redut. It introduced him as Igor Salikov and claimed that he was "a military intelligence officer (GRU) of the Russian Ministry of Defence, former head of the 4th Department of Special Operations of the so-called DPR prosecutor-general's office, who participated in hostilities with the FSB and GRU".
"Sources of Schemes in the Ukrainian special service and one of the law enforcement agencies confirmed that it was indeed Igor Salikov," Radio Liberty reported.
While investigating the activities of the Redut PMC, journalists studied the biography of Igor Salikov. One of the versions from open sources was that this so-called PMC originated from the Russian NGO Veterans of Peacekeeping Missions and Local Conflicts.
"According to Russian registers, this NGO existed from 2008 to 2011. Igor Salikov was listed as one of its co-founders. So was Russian journalist Arkadiy Babchenko," the journalists noted.
The Radio Liberty investigators also added that by analysing Salikov's biography, they managed to identify his pseudonym, which he often uses, that is Igor Koval.
The Office of the Prosecutor-General of Ukraine told the journalists that they are investigating information received from Igor Salikov, who, as he says, wants to make a statement to the International Criminal Court about Russia's war crimes in Ukraine.
Some of the details he provided about the prosecutor's crimes committed by the Russian army have already been confirmed, Yuriy Belousov, head of the Department for Combating Crimes in Armed Conflict at the Office of the Prosecutor General, told Radio Liberty (Svoboda.Ranok project).
"Yes, I confirm the fact that the Office of the Prosecutor General has been working on this person for more than six months, who has been giving us evidence of Russia's actions since 2013 to prepare for an open invasion, especially the open invasion. In addition, he gave important testimony, some of which has already been confirmed, related to the open invasion from 24 February 2022. He reported certain war crimes, some of which we are investigating, and some of which have already been confirmed. Now it is difficult for us to say about all the information that this person provides us. This needs to be verified as part of the investigation. But we have already checked some of this information and it has been confirmed," Belousov said.
In the investigation "Redut's Trick", journalists found out that members of the Redut armed group fought in Syria on the side of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Subsequently, this so-called PMC was transformed, moved under the leadership of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate and recruited fighters to various branched units of Redut, which are now involved in the war against Ukraine.
Redut PMC
In October, Radio Liberty published an investigation that claimed that Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate had created a shadow army of state mercenaries under the guise of the Redut private military company. The journalists found out that Redut is not a so-called PMC, but an armed formation controlled by the GRU. It is the GRU that finances these mercenaries.
According to Sistema's estimates, based on open data and conversations with recruiters and relatives of mercenaries, the Redut system includes at least 20 Russian armed groups of various kinds.