Tamara Stepanova, the mother of 33-year-old Alexander Stepanov, told 7x7 that her son had been forcibly sent to war. According to her, unknown individuals abducted him on the evening of August 19 as he was leaving a store in the Zarya neighborhood on the outskirts of Penza.
“He was wearing shorts, a T-shirt, and flip-flops. He had no documents on him. Strangers handcuffed him and put him in a car. They took him somewhere that, according to my son, seemed to be a military enlistment office. They beat him and tore his T-shirt. They kept at it until he signed the contract,” Tamara Stepanova wrote.
Stepanova claims that the military enlistment office issued her son new documents in just 20 minutes. Similar cases have already been reported in Penza involving men being forced to sign military contracts. On the evening of August 23, Stepanov said that he was already in Donetsk.
Tamara Stepanova filed appeals with the military prosecutor's office, the human rights commissioner, the Ministry of Defense, and the office of Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin. She has yet to receive a response.
