Russia Celebrated Him. Now He’s Accused of Having Troops Shoot Themselves.

Konstantin Frolov, a Russian lieutenant colonel once celebrated as a war hero, is on trial for allegedly defrauding the army of 200 million rubles ($2.6 million). Frolov, known as "Executioner," and another commander are accused of orchestrating a scheme where over 30 soldiers and medics from the 83rd Guards Air Assault Brigade intentionally injured themselves with weapons to receive battlefield injury payouts. While Frolov admits to involvement in a scheme to skim money from injury payments, he denies the self-inflicted wound aspect, claiming it involved manipulated record-keeping. He believes he is being unfairly targeted while others in the military have gone unpunished. Frolov faces charges of fraud, bribery, and weapons trafficking and has a pretrial deal that could lead to a reduced sentence.

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