Kremlin says it will look into “strange” video alleging army torture

PHOTO CAPTION: @luninalexandr1987 (Instagram) 

MOSCOW  -  The Kremlin said on Friday it would look into a viral video appeal to President Vladimir Putin by a military veteran accusing Russian commanders in Ukraine of torturing and murdering soldiers for not fulfilling "suicidal orders".

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin had not yet seen the appeal, which was posted on Instagram, but that it sounded like it contained "strange wording." 

The post by veteran Alexander Lunin, which did not cite any evidence or name any alleged victims or perpetrators, garnered over 12 million views in 24 hours. Instagram is banned in Russia and can be accessed only by using a virtual private network.

Before his video appeal, most Russians had not heard of Lunin, who lives in Russia's Voronezh region. It was not clear if Lunin was speaking on his own initiative for himself or whether  - as he suggested - he represented wider forces.   

In the video, Lunin alleged that thousands of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine were being held in pits for refusing to carry out "stupid or suicidal orders" or for refusing to hand over money to their commanders. 

He alleged that such soldiers were being tortured before being murdered and their commanders were then covering up what had happened by saying they were missing in action.

Lunin recorded his video wearing combat fatigues and lots of medals. He said that if he did not get a personal audience with Putin on live TV soon, the army would turn their guns on the Kremlin. 

Asked about Lunin's video appeal by reporters on a conference call, Peskov said: "You know, we were indeed told that such an appeal exists, but we haven’t had a chance to look at it yet, so I wouldn’t want to comment on it."

"But judging by what you’ve said, it contains some rather strange wording, so we need to look at it first," he said.   

 (Reporting by Reuters, Editing by Timothy Heritage // REUTERS)