Leaders of the Combat Organization of Russian Nationalists (BORN), Nikita Tikhonov and Ilya Goryachev, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, have expressed a desire to go to war with Ukraine. This was reported by Z-military correspondent Alexander Kots in his stream, as noted by the publication RTVI.
During the broadcast, one of the viewers inquired whether those sentenced to life imprisonment are being sent to the front. Kots responded that two prisoners had approached him with such a request, but they were not accepted either by the Wagner PMC or by the Russian Ministry of Defense. Later in the stream, the military correspondent clarified that he was specifically referring to Tikhonov and Goryachev.
"Nikita Tikhonov <…> and Ilya Goryachev reached out to me," stated Kots. "But they were not accepted anywhere. They volunteered when recruitment was being conducted in the colonies and also sent letters to various authorities—to no avail."
In 2011, Nikita Tikhonov was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova and lawyer Stanislav Markelov, committed in January 2009. His accomplice, his girlfriend Yevgenia Khasis, was sentenced to 18 years in a penal colony. Later, her sentence was reduced to 17 years, and she is expected to be released in the coming months.
Ilya Goryachev also received a life sentence. In 2015, the court found him guilty of organizing five murders (including the murders of Baburova and Markelov), creating the extremist group BORN, and illegally possessing weapons.
Freelance correspondent of Novaya Gazeta Anastasia Baburova and lawyer Stanislav Markelov were shot and killed on January 19, 2009, in the center of Moscow on Prechistenka Street. They were returning from a press conference dedicated to the fate of one of the anti-fascists.