A soldier who said he was held prisoner in a factory in Dagestan for 11 years before escaping has confessed that he made the whole thing up.
Andrey Popov now says that he actually was just hiding – after deserting from the army.
His initial story was that he was given a substance that put him to sleep. After that, he woke up in a factory in Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan, where he was held as a slave to a local crime boss who owned the factory.
This was where Popov, along with several hundred others, allegedly spent the next 11 years of his life in horrifying conditions unsuitable even for a dog.
Popov’s return to his hometown of Saratov at the end of August seemed to confirm his story.
The soldier was malnourished with bruises all over his body and several teeth missing. Despite this, he was arrested shortly after returning home. Now his fate will be decided by a court.