Russia’s president and preacher of “traditional values” Vladimir Putin gave a presidential pardon to a literal cannibal in exchange for the convicted murderer’s participation in the war against Ukraine.
Denis Gorin, sentenced to 22 years behind bars in 2018, is free and recovering in a hospital on Russian territory after he was let loose from prison and sent to the battlefield, according to multiple reports. He is at least the 17th convicted murderer to be released for the war.
Gorin was convicted on three separate occasions, the first of which was in 2003 for murder. He was released in 2010 and soon after murdered the brother of an inmate with whom he’d served; he later confessed in court that he’d sliced off a part of the victim’s flesh as a memento and eaten it. He went on to commit two more murders before finally being sent back to prison in 2018.
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Gorin’s former neighbor, Dmitry, expressed shock at his release in comments to Radio Free Europe: “He got only 10 years! And they released him in 2010, supposedly for exemplary behavior. Even then we were in shock: he killed and ate a man, and after 7 years he was free. We didn’t know then what would happen in 2023!”
Dmitry said he’d been present when police came to detain Gorin.
“They opened the fridge and it was filled to the brim with human flesh! He told us right then and there how he would cut meat from the legs of the dead, and look at the biceps to see if there was meat there,” he said, alleging there had been several more murders for which Gorin was never charged.
He said Gorin’s victims still had “a lot of relatives” living in the area in the Sakhalin region. “Something tells me Gorin won’t be walking free for long. If the authorities can’t ensure his punishment, the relatives will get vigilante justice. … Maybe he’ll tough it out for a year, and then he’ll start killing again,” Dmitry said.
Gorin has apparently made no attempt to hide his newfound freedom. He posted new photos of himself in military-style clothing on his social media in late October.
A woman who appeared to be a female relative or acquaintance of Gorin, identified only as Natalya, bristled when asked if Gorin had received a presidential pardon, according to the Agentsvo news outlet. Instead, she reportedly shot back at the reporter, “Well he didn’t get the death penalty did he?”
