The knife used by a Russian soldier to cut off the ear of one of the alleged March 22 attackers in Moscow has been put up for auction on Telegram.
The announcement was published last night on the TopaZ Govorit channel, which with over 147 thousand followers is linked to neo-Nazi circles and followers of the now dismantled Wagner mercenary company. “We are auctioning off the knife suitable for cutting the ear,” we read in the post, which has no minimum bid and ends with a smiling emoticon.
According to the channel's managers, it would be the weapon used on March 23 to torture the 30-year-old Saidakrami Rajabalizoda, one of the four alleged perpetrators of the massacre at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, claimed by the self-styled Islamic State (ISIS) and which caused at least 139 dead and almost 200 injured.
The man had appeared in a video circulated immediately after his arrest and whose authenticity has not yet been proven. The images show a soldier in a camouflage suit holding the suspect on the ground while another soldier cuts off part of his right ear and then tries to make him eat it.
Some previous posts which also appeared on TopaZ Govorit claim that the soldier responsible for the torture is an exponent of the far right. Another photo with what appears to be the same weapon, published by the same Telegram group, shows a man in a brown uniform with the neo-Nazi black sun symbol.
This would be how the channel administrators would have come into possession of the blade, still shown bloody in the announcement. It is not clear whether the weapon is actually the one used in the video (nor whether the footage is authentic). However, the group's managers have announced that they will pay “part of the money raised (from the auction, ed.) into a charity account in the name of the victims of the terrorist attack”.
The channel has not yet revealed whether the weapon has actually been sold but, according to the British newspaper Daily Mailthe highest offer received so far is equivalent to 10 thousand rubles, just under 100 euros.
