Russian school invites former Wagner fighter with two murder convictions to meet with seventh graders

A school in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region invited Alexander Raspravin, a former Wagner Group fighter and ex-prisoner who has twice been convicted on charges of beating people to death, to speak to seventh-grade students earlier this month, according to the Telegram channel Govorit NeMoskva.

“He spoke about the living conditions on the front and how important and necessary it is to support ordinary citizens. [He said] that every drawing and letter reaches the common soldier, that it’s important for them,” reads a statement from the school.

Photos from the October 5 event show Raspravin showing the students a man-portable anti-tank guided missile that resembles the U.S.-made Javelin model.

Journalists from Mediazona found three past felony cases against Raspravin on the website of the Nizhny Novgorod region’s Arzamas District Court. In 2010, he was sentenced to six years in prison for the assault of his own grandfather, which ultimately led to the man’s death. The sentence in his subsequent conviction in 2016 is unclear from the records on the site, but in 2017, he was sentenced to 11 years for killing an acquaintance by striking him more than 40 times.