will tell the house of financial services committee there was an absence of management control under his leadership, spf is also do to get evidence on line from his base in the bahamas later on tuesday. nearly ten months into the ukrainie war and despite hundreds of thousands of reservists being called up, russia is no longer advancing in any meaningful way on the battlefield. president putin insists his forces are fighting brilliantly and has called them heroes. but there are some who refuse to fight. we ve heard testimony from servicemen, relatives and activists which suggests, that some of them have been subjected to mistreatment, threats and even violence to try to force them back to the front line. our russia editor, steve rosenberg, has been listening to their stories. the official view from the kremlin is that russians
how russian soldiers had tried to force him to fight. they beat him and then they took him outside as if they were going to shoot him. they made him lie on the ground and told him to count to ten. he refused, so they beat him over the head several times with a pistol. he told me his face was covered in blood and then they took him into a room and told him, you re coming with us otherwise we will kill you. but someone there said, i ll take him to work in the storeroom. and there are other stories. these mobilised russian troops were locked in a cellar after they said they won t go back into battle. basements turned into dungeons for those who don t want to fight. human rights activists say cases like these reflect the pressure russian soldiers are coming under in ukraine from their own commanders.
it s crazy, christina told me, like a play, not real life. i have friends and family who agree with the plotters. that scares me. the alleged mastermind, dubbed the putsch prince, is hereditary loyalty. the head of his family, who lives in austria, told me he fears for their reputation. translation: we d already distanced ourselves - from him as a family because of his racist conspiracy theories. he was a bitter man who got in with a dangerous crowd. dangerous because they had weapons and were ready to use them, but the police never believe that their coup would succeed. what really worries the security forces here is that this is a moment of social instability in germany as in many other european countries. on the back of the pandemic, the war in ukraine and
they beat him and then they took him outside as if they were going to shoot him. they made him lie on the ground and told him to count to ten. he refused, so they beat him over the head several times with a pistol. he told me his face was covered in blood and then they took him into a room and told him, you re coming with us otherwise we will kill you. but someone there said, i ll take him to work in the storeroom. and there are other stories. these mobilised russian troops were locked in a cellar after they said they won t go back into battle. basements turned into dungeons for those who don t want to fight. human rights activists say cases like these reflect the pressure russian soldiers are coming under in ukraine from their own commanders. translation: it s a way of making j people go back into that bloodbath.
but after ten months of fighting, not all the soldiers think that. sergei has agreed to tell me about his son, stas, an army officer. we have changed their names to protect their identities. deployed to ukraine, his son refused to fight. he told me it was a difficult decision for him to take, i told him, better to take it. this is not our war. it s not a war of liberation. i will put that in writing, that i refuse to fight, he said. he and several others who refused had their guns taken off them and were put under armed guard. sergei travelled to the front line in ukraine to try to secure his son s release. eventually, stas was sent back to russia, and revealed the full drama of his detention how russian soldiers had tried to force him to fight.