Deserter with machine gun who shot policeman in Russia turns out to be Wagner Group soldier

A deserter who opened fire at a policeman from a machine gun on 6 December was detained in Rostov Oblast (Russia); according to the information from the media outlets, it appears to be a soldier of the Wagner Group, recruited from one of the penal colonies earlier.

Source: Vasiliy Golubev, Governor of Rostov Oblast, on Telegram; Baza, a Russian media outlet with sources in the security services; Kremlin-aligned news outlet RIA Novosti

Quote from Golubev: "The criminal is detained. As a result of coordinated operational-search activities, he was detected in an empty building near Novoshakhtinsk. Investigative actions are conducted."

Details: RIA Novosti outlet, citing the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, reported that the detained soldier is 38 years old and was born in another region.

According to the data from Baza outlet, this detained deserter is Pavel Nikolin, a soldier of the Wagner Group.

He was serving a sentence for theft and robbery at the Penal Colony No.4 [city of Ufa, Russia]. He was recruited to the Wagner Group there. But Nikolin changed his mind about going to war on 24 November and escaped.

As per the Baza’s information, Nikolin had been searched for approximately a day and found at an abandoned pig farm. He was trying to fight back during the detainment.

Background:

• It was reported on 6 December that a soldier with a machine gun who wounded a policeman was wanted in Novoshakhtinsk city [Rostov Oblast, Russia]. 
• On 13 November, it became known that a citizen of Russia was brutally executed without trial and investigation by tying his head to concrete with tape and hitting him with a sledgehammer from above. Prigozhin, the founder of Wagner Group, hinted that this was the work of his mercenaries. Perhaps, with the help of such a video of execution, Russia is trying to discourage the Russian conscripts from surrendering.
• After the publication of the video of the execution with a sledgehammer of Yevgeny Nuzhin, a former inmate recruited by the Wagner Group, the recruitment of convicts in the colonies of Siberia and the Far East intensified: only in November, Wagner has "conscripted" people from at least six regions east of the Urals, taking 150-200 people from each penal colony.
• On 22 November, Politico reported that the members of the European Parliament want to recognize the Wagner Group as a terrorist organisation.
• Yevgeny Prigozhin, Chief of the Wagner Group, has proposed to give a sledgehammer with fake blood stains to the European Parliament in response to a possible recognition of his group as a terrorist organisation.
• On 23 November, the European Parliament recognized Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and called for Wagner Group to be added to the list of terrorist organisations of the European Union.

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