Widow of anti-Kremlin activist Ildar Dadin says he was buried without her knowledge or permission
The widow of Ildar Dadin, a Russian anti-Kremlin activist who recently died in combat while fighting for Ukraine, said on Friday that her husband was cremated and buried without her knowledge or permission. In a Facebook post, Alexandra Sveshnikova stated that the way the Freedom of Russia legion, the pro-Ukrainian unit her husband served in, handled his burial has led her to suspect that the formation may not be telling the truth about how he died. Here’s what we know.
Russian opposition activist Ildar Dadin, who fought with the Ukrainian Armed Forces until he was killed on the front lines in the fall of 2024, was cremated and buried without the knowledge of his wife, Alexandra Sveshnikova, she said on Friday.
In a Facebook post, Sveshnikova said she learned of Dadin’s burial in Kyiv’s Baikove Cemetery from “journalists” and that it took place without her knowledge or permission.
She also said that she spent over three weeks trying to retrieve her husband’s body from the Freedom of Russia legion, where he served, so that she could “give him a proper burial.” She suspects that Dadin may not have died from artillery fire, as the legion reported, but at the hands of his fellow servicemen.
According to Sveshnikova, after learning of her husband’s death “from friends” on October 6, she initially reached out to Freedom of Russia representative Alexey Baranovsky, before contacting the unit’s press service. On October 25, the legion informed her that Dadin had not listed her “as a wife or close relative” upon enlisting and that he would therefore be buried according to the legion’s rules. Sveshnikova claims that the legion still has Dadin’s passport, which has a marriage stamp, as well as a copy of their marriage certificate.
Sveshnikova also asserted that her husband had told her about conflicts he’d had with the legion’s commanders because “his comrades were dying senselessly as a result of PR initiatives (such as in Tetkino).” According to her, Dadin said that “due to these conflicts, he was already worried about getting a bullet in the back.” Sveshnikova noted that the legion’s account of how Dadin died “was constantly changing,” from artillery shelling to a drone attack and then to automatic gunfire.
And now they’ve cremated his body and buried his ashes — I’m starting to doubt more and more that Ildar died at the hands of the occupiers, and not from a bullet in the back.
Ildar Dadin’s death was first reported publicly on October 6 by journalist Ksenia Larina, and one of his fellow servicemen confirmed it to The Insider soon after. However, the Freedom of Russia legion didn’t officially announce his death until October 26. In a social media post, they said that he had been killed in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region after being “struck by several bullets from an enemy rifle” while trying to help a wounded unit mate.
On October 31, BBC News Russian reported that a farewell ceremony had been held for Dadin in Kyiv, citing the Freedom of Russia legion’s press service. The legion has not mentioned Dadin’s burial on its Telegram channel or Facebook page, but it shared a picture on X that shows fighters standing by a coffin and holding a portrait of Dadin.
Dadin was the first Russian citizen to be convicted of a felony for repeatedly violating protest rules, leading the media to start referring to the statute he was charged under as the “Dadin Law.” In December 2015, he was sentenced to three years in prison, which was later reduced to 2.5 years. Dadin reported being tortured at the penal colony in Russia’s Karelia where he served his sentence. After Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he decided to join the Ukrainian army.