The St. Petersburg Garrison Military Court sentenced former Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Frolov, known by the call sign "Executioner," to 21 years in a strict-regime penal colony. He was convicted over fraudulent claims involving staged combat wounds, accepting bribes and illegal possession or trafficking of weapons and ammunition.
Details of the case emerged from the court hearing. According to the court's findings, Frolov arranged self-inflicted gunshot wounds to be recorded as battlefield injuries, enabling payments and military decorations to be obtained. The courtroom report also described staged videos of supposed frontline exploits that were shown on television as genuine.
The court stripped Frolov of his lieutenant colonel rank, four Orders of Courage, a Medal for Courage and a second-class Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland." During the proceedings, Frolov initially admitted the charges but then insisted on a full trial and rejected the allegations, linking the prosecution to a case involving his father, a former senior Roscosmos official.
Defense lawyer Tatyana Zhuravlyova called the verdict unlawful and unjustified. She said the defense disputed the court's jurisdiction and had raised objections about its inability to examine some classified case materials. There was no information at the time of publication that the sentence had entered into legal force.