Voting parent of missing Russian conscript questioned by security services

The outspoken father of a missing Russian conscript said he was interrogated by the country’s security services, The Moscow Times reports.

Dmitry Shkrebets is the father of 20-year-old Yegor Shkrebets, a Russian conscript believed to have been killed in the Moskva sinking in April.

Shkrebets was one of the Moskva crew’s first and most vocal parents, seeking answers about their sons’ fate after the warship sank and they were declared missing.

Shkrebets wrote on the Russian social media platform VK that agents from an unidentified security agency came to his apartment and questioned him about alleged bomb threats.

“It seemed to someone that my son’s tragic death didn’t shock me enough, didn’t grieve enough, didn’t anger me enough,” he wrote on the online platform on Thursday. “Someone wanted to turn me into a ‘frozen’ terrorist.”

According to Shkrebets, Security Service officials claimed that “bomb threat messages were sent by email (from abroad) to some organizations on his behalf.”

He denies these allegations and calls them “absurd”.

“I’m even ashamed of these serious, smart and really polite people who were forced to visit me about such a beastly fake,” Shkrebets added, noting that his laptop was also confiscated for a forensic examination.

“Now I’m not just waiting for news from the Black Sea Fleet Military Prosecutor’s Office about a change in the status of my son … I’ll wait for the result of the examination of my laptop, in which nothing terrorist can be found, since it was never there,” said he.

Shkrebets’ son was declared missing on April 13 after the Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, sank after reportedly being hit by a Ukrainian missile.

At the time, Russia claimed a fire on board caused the explosion.

Russia has since remained unaware of what happened to the crew, many of whom are still missing, despite releasing video allegedly showing them safe and sound at a military parade.

Euronews cannot independently verify the validity of this information.

Shkrebets has criticized the military authorities’ actions in shooting down the Moscow River and called for penalties to be imposed on “all those responsible” for allowing conscripts to take part in the war with Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin initially denied that conscripts took part in Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, but later admitted they “take part”.

The nuclear-capable Moskva was the jewel of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. It was manned by around 500 sailors.

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