A Mechanic, a Bankrupt, and Two Smoking Barrels: How the BARS-11 Unit Recruits

Do you remember when former Roscosmos director-general Dmitry Rogozin was wounded by gunfire in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Dec. 22, 2022? Let us recall that Russian-language reports on the social media service Telegram, on a channel attributed to Rogozin, claimed he was deliberately targeted after information was leaked about him having a party at a local hotel. It was during this period public popularity of BARS-11 peaked. In the positions of this unit, a “Russian parody of Elon Musk” was hit.

БLet’s see if there was anything interesting about this unit during their four official years of existence and more than a year of full-scale invasion with thousands of corpses. It seems that there is nothing interesting, but this is only at first glance.

Usually, “history is made by people,” and people at BARS are distinguished by their stupidity. So, make yourself comfortable: today on the program — BARS-11, or, more precisely, their system of turning people into corpses – recruiting to the squad.

BARS-11 is a volunteer unit like all other BARS units. BARS (Boevoi Armeiskii Rezerv Strany) is a Russian military reserve force implemented in 2015. The idea behind creating the National Army Combat Reserve – known by its Russian acronym BARS – was to recruit volunteers into the reserve on a contract with miserable payments.
All that was required of them was to come to short training every year and, in case of “necessity,” to become a mobilization reserve. They actually abandoned the Russian government, and most of those who had volunteered for BARS before the war didn’t show up when it began. The only difference with BARS-11 was that it was created on the basis of the Kuban Cossacks, and almost all the volunteers were Cossacks.

The Registered Cossacks of the Russian Federation are a paramilitary formation that originally performed non-military and public safety services. Various Registered Cossacks of the Russian Federation were identified operating in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea in 2014 during the Russo-Ukrainian War — with Kuban Cossacks helping occupy Crimea and Don Cossacks invading Donbas.

Now, a year after the full-scale invasion, BARS no longer neglects to recruit anyone and from anywhere. Our team noticed an urgent recruitment ad dated Apr. 4, 2023. This ad was posted on various social networks, military channels, and even in the local group of Nizhnevartovsk (a city in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug–Yugra, Russia).

It’s probably a kind of “professional suitability” test — if you want to drive a car for 50 hours and then die, you’re stupid enough to become part of BARS.

У цих оголошеннях є 3 контакти рекрутерів – Бруно, Титан і Ваха. Давайте розпочнемо з кінця

There are three recruiter contacts in these ads: Bruno, Titan, and Vakha. Let’s start from the end. We’ve recently published https://myrotvorets.center/criminal/ivanickij-ivan-andreevich/the dossier of the BARS-11 recruiter with the callsign “VAKHA.”

Titan’s career in the Russian army ended three years before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He had a lawsuit and bankruptcy due to a debt of almost two million rubles. Is this really the first military commander who stole from the army and received legal punishment for it? No, we’re talking about Russia here. He didn’t steal — just killed a person during training. Just forgot to mention. These things happen.

On April 11, 2018, company military operational exercises were organized in military unit 6776 with the 3rd operational company. Titan, who is now a BARS-11 recruiter, was responsible for organizing and conducting the exercises.
They were organized at such a level that he did not even inform the daily orderly officers at the military checkpoint. So, when the exercises began, the orderly officer from the checkpoint simply shot a corporal from Titan’s unit.

According to good Russian tradition, the family of the shot man filed a lawsuit for compensation for moral damages. The military unit, and Titan personally, were found guilty, so the family received money.

Titan now has a personal lawsuit on behalf of the military unit to compensate for the damages he caused with his unprofessionalism and negligence. He was convicted and ordered to pay, and went to collect loans to pay them.
The next lawsuit did not take long to appear, and Titan himself filed a lawsuit asking to be declared bankrupt and not to pay the debt to Sberbank and AktivBusinessConsult in the total amount of 1,877,643.76 rubles.

Titan, who was found guilty of the death of a soldier, having a suspended sentence with debts amounting to almost two million rubles, approached a new stage in his career in 2022 – recruiting volunteers. We wonder if he tells his recruits about his considerable experience of fatally stupid decisions, or if it’s just the standard of the “second world army.”

The “hero” must be known in person, so we publish his personal data.

We are not hinting at anything, but it is interesting how the family of a bankrupt man suddenly acquired real estate in Crimea around the same time. Perhaps the security services of the banks might find it worth checking out? 🙂

But let’s not stray from the course – next up is the third “character” – Bruno. He’s not just a recruiter, but also the admin of the Telegram channel “Союз добровольцев Кубани” (Union of Kuban Volunteers). Bruno has dedicated his entire life to a career in marketing, advertising, and typography. Perhaps that’s why, as an SMM specialist, he ended up in admin work.

The advertising was decent, the SMM worked – thanks to Bruno from our whole team for so much leaked info about the internal life of BARS, the organization of operations, and the personal data of combatants and their families. Bruno confidently outperforms Titan in terms of collaboration with the Ukrainian Armed Forces, because while Titan killed just one soldier, Bruno “prepared an ambush” for hundreds.

**So, what interesting things do we know about our little assistant? **

Bruno doesn’t mix personal and professional life – he may recruit volunteers, but he hasn’t recruited his own son yet, a perfectly suitable candidate by age who also happens to be a medic. Really, Bruno? Or perhaps there’s some traumatic experience in this area… Ah, oops! Seems someone cheated at work so much that he lost his family. Apparently, over there personal and professional life still mixed just fine.

The image is a screenshot of a forum post from August 16, 2010, discussing a “Question of the Day” about romance at work. The post asks users if they have ever been involved with a co-worker or classmate and how it worked out. A user responds in Russian, sharing a negative experience in which they lost their wife and family due to such a relationship.

According to Bruno himself, setting a good example for his son is extremely important – so maybe we can give him a hand and send our regards?

“Our shining star”

While the father makes money off the war and the deaths of “volunteers,” the son takes pictures with expensive cars in car dealerships without leaving his native Krasnodar. This is where family modesty comes in.

Our “dear” guests from BARS-11 do not know where they will die tomorrow, but this place could be one of their training bases, located at the coordinates: 47.743389, 37.661294. Thanks to our informer Bruno for the information he provided. Working as agreed.

Geolocated by this video:

And finally, as our gratitude to “Ukraine’s undercover agents”, we’re sharing for other BARS members some advice from their own recruiters and commanders: “Do not use your phones.” This is not your prerogative—after all, why would you need a phone in a coffin? They still need theirs—to recruit new members after you, make money, feed their families (if they still have any). “Russians never leave their own behind.”

The article was prepared by investigators Tallinn_Radical and NGC_1427A