Russian conscript dies after severe beating by senior officer

A Russian soldier stationed at a military airfield in Kopeysk (roughly 1,100 miles east of Moscow) has died after being severely beaten by a senior officer.

The beating took place on July 2, when a senior warrant officer ordered Denis Ovodov, a conscripted soldier, to clean his bunk. When Ovodov refused, the officer struck him no less than three times in the head with an iron canteen, according to Alexei Kovalev, a human rights official based in the Chelyabinsk region.

Ovodov fell into a coma and finally died in the hospital on July 13.

Russian military police have reportedly launched a criminal investigation into the “abuse of authority.”