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A search listing for Zhaslan Mustakhanov, also known as Yevgeny Shpartun and by the call sign Kanello, has appeared in the Ministry of Internal Affairs wanted database. Mediazona drew attention to this. It is not specified under which article of the Criminal Code the former Wagner mercenary is being sought.
In February 2025, Mustakhanov published a video in which he criticised the command of the Russian army for its treatment of military personnel. In June of the same year, he illegally crossed the border into Finland and requested asylum there. After this, a video criticising the Ministry of Defence and the treatment of soldiers as “disposable” appeared on his VKontakte page.
In November of that year, the Finnish outlet Yle reported that the country’s authorities had returned to Russia a man named Yevgeny who had participated in the war. Earlier, Yle had published his videos, in which Mediazona identified Mustakhanov. What happened to him after his return is unknown.
Before the war began, Mustakhanov had been convicted at least six times in cases involving theft and robbery. For example, in December 2021, he was sentenced to six and a half years in a high-security penal colony over a series of jewellery store robberies. According to Mustakhanov himself, in 2022 he signed a contract and underwent training with Wagner. In 2024, he received another six-year sentence in a strict-regime penal colony for robbing a jewellery shop. He was later released again and joined an assault company of a Russian motorised rifle regiment that took part in the capture of Selydove in Donetsk Oblast.