A man in his fifties was standing by the side of the Trans-Siberian highway not far from Krasnoyarsk, more than 3.000 kilometers east of Moscow, when his car stalled.
He was wearing a camouflage uniform, wearing a black and red emblem, the insignia for "Vagner" - a Russian private mercenary group considered a terrorist organization by the UK, France and other countries.
He only had a backpack with him.
In the car was Olga Antipina (48), a resident of the small Siberian town of Sosnovoborsk, who decided to help Wagner's former mercenaries adjust to life in peace after their return from the front line of the Russian war in Ukraine.
Before picking him up on the highway, Olga had never met Valery Molokov, but she knew about his past - that before being recruited by Wagner to fight in Ukraine, the 54-year-old had served a prison sentence for murder.
Still, she agreed to help him.
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Recruitment of convicts
Russia began mass recruitment of convicts four months after launching the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Almost 50.000 Russian convicts went to fight in the war, because they were promised that they would be pardoned within six months and receive a hefty payment upon their return.
Thousands of them died, but many managed to survive and return home.
Russian public opinion is divided over the return of Wagner's former mercenaries, as many people fear them and think it is immoral to pardon convicts in order to fight in the war.
Also, some former Wagner recruits have been accused of committing war crimes in Ukraine and carrying out extrajudicial executions.
Some of the returning ex-convicts have also committed crimes again.
There were reportedly more than 200 new court cases for crimes committed by ex-convicts pardoned by President Putin.
Valery Molokov was sentenced to 11 years in prison in July 2022 for the murder of his older sister six months earlier.
It is said that he was under the influence of alcohol when the two had an argument on New Year's Eve.
He hit her in the face, a few hours later he hit her again in the head and continued to hit her after she fell to the ground.
An ambulance was called only a few hours later, because the younger sister, who witnessed the fight, said that Valery prevented her from calling her, suggesting that they drink vodka instead.
The older sister died in hospital from a head injury a week later.
Despite the horrific nature of the crime, Molokov had served only a few months of his sentence when he was recruited by Wagner in 2023 and sent to the front.
He fought in Bakhmut, a city in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, and returned to Russia in August 2023 after being wounded.
He had nowhere to live and no life to return to when someone gave him Olga's phone number, saying she could help him.
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'The only useful thing'
Valery Molokov is not Wagner's first mercenary nor the first convicted criminal in Olga's life.
Her former partner was also recruited by Wagner, and he went straight from prison to the war and died.
They met while he was behind bars and began to correspond.
After he left prison, they stayed together for 13 years and had three children, but her late husband drank heavily and often beat her and the children.
In 2015, he was again convicted of illegal drug sales.
In March 2023, he was recruited by Wagner while serving a prison sentence, unbeknownst to Olga.
Olga called his death "the only useful thing he ever did for his family", as she bought an apartment for their eldest son from the compensation she received from Wagner after he was killed in the war.
After her own experience, she decided to help other former Wagner mercenaries returning from the front.
After meeting with Valery, Olga found him temporary accommodation and advised him what to do with the payment he received from Wagner.
"He was like a child, saying I want this, I want that. I told him: No," Olga recalled, speaking to BBC News in Russian.
“The first thing you need is your own property, so we'll buy you one. Then, do you want a car? "Okay, we'll buy you a car," she told Valerio.
Olga said that she had no financial interest in helping him and that she was not bothered by his past.
She is a member of the Pentecostal Church of God, an evangelical church in Russia, and when asked what she thought about the war in Ukraine, she invoked the rhetoric of the Apocalypse.
"The Bible says the end times will come, and brother will strike brother, and that's exactly what's happening."
Valery also began going to a Pentecostal church every Sunday and was so grateful to Olga for helping him that at one point he proposed to her.
She refused.
He had been working on a temporary basis for a security company for over a month, but was unable to continue.
Asked what would have happened to him if Olga had not helped him, Valerij says that he would probably have returned to the front.
"To be honest, I'm not dying to go back," he says.
“But I keep getting pulled. There I knew who my enemy was. I don't know here."
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