Moscow: An official document seen by Reuters shows that at least 131 Russian citizens died in Syria in the first nine months of this year, a number that relatives, friends and local officials say included private military contractors.
The document, a death certificate issued by the Russian consulate in Damascus dated Oct. 4, 2017, does not say what the deceased was doing in Syria.
But Reuters has established in interviews with the families and friends of some of the deceased and officials in their hometowns that the dead included Russian private military contractors killed while fighting alongside the forces of Moscow’s ally, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
The presence of the Russian contractors in Syria - and the casualties they are sustaining - is denied by Moscow, which wants to portray its military intervention in Syria as a successful peace mission with minimal losses.
The official death toll of military personnel in Syria this year is 16. A casualty figure significantly higher than that could tarnish President Vladimir Putin’s record five months before a presidential election which he is expected to contest.
A Reuters count of the number of Russian private contractors known to have been killed in Syria this year, based on interviews with relatives and friends of the dead and local officials in their hometowns, stands at 26.
Russian authorities have not publicly released any information this year about casualties among Russian civilians who may have been caught up in the fighting.
A Russian diplomat who has worked in a consulate in another part of the world, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media, said the figure of 131 registered deaths in nine months was unusually high given the estimated number of Russian expatriates in Syria.
Although there is no official data for the size of the community, data from Russian national elections shows there were only around 5,000 registered Russian voters in the country in 2012 and 2016.
“It is as if the diaspora is dying out,” he said.
High numbers of deaths are usually recorded by Russian consulates only in tourist destinations such as Thailand or Turkey, he said.
Russian consulates do not register the deaths of military personnel, according to an official at the consulate in Damascus who did not give his name.
The consular document seen by Reuters was a “certificate of death” issued to record the death of Sergei Poddubny, 36. It was one of three death certificates seen by Reuters.
Poddubny’s certificate, which bears the consulate’s stamp, lists the cause of death as “carbonisation of the body” - in other words, he was burned.
It said he was killed on Sept. 28 in the town of Tiyas, Homs province, the scene of heavy fighting between Islamist rebels and pro-Al Assad forces.
Several Russian contractors were killed in the area earlier this year, friends and relatives told Reuters.
Poddubny’s body was repatriated and buried in his home village in southern Russia about three weeks later. He had been in Syria as a private military contractor, one of his relatives and one of his friends told Reuters.
Poddubny’s death certificate had a serial number in the top right corner, 131.
The Russian defence ministry did not immediately respond to detailed questions submitted by Reuters. Requests for comment from the Russian consulate in Damascus did not elicit a response.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement provided to Reuters: “We do not have information about individual citizens who visit Syria. With that, I consider this question dealt with.” Reuters sent questions to a group of Russian private military contractors active in Syria through a person who knows their commanders, but did not receive a response.
