Escaped Russian LGBT Soldier Exposes "Black Mamba" Torture and Sadism in Putin's "Showcase" Brigade

Artem Bykov, a 24-year-old bisexual Russian conscript, has fled the military and revealed systematic torture, sexual violence, and brutality inside the 273rd Artillery Brigade - a unit Russian President Vladimir Putin personally visited in 2025 as a "model" formation.

Bykov's mother effectively abandoned him by forcing him into service. He ended up in rear-echelon duty at the 34th Guards Artillery Division stationed in Mulino, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. Behind the facade of Putin's "exemplary" unit, Bykov found medieval cruelty: soldiers beaten with sticks and hammers, chained to radiators, forced into punishment pits, sexually assaulted, and driven to suicide.

"There was a black rubber dildo in the officers' quarters. It was called 'Black Mamba'... Any conflict, any confrontation, any unwillingness to obey superior command was punished with 'Black Mamba'... Everyone who tried to show character was either humiliated or sent to the assault units," Bykov told Radio Svoboda journalists.

This grotesque practice is not isolated. Previous reports documented russian soldiers torturing and killing each other with rubber dildos. The Kremlin claims to defend "traditional values" while sadists satisfy disturbed impulses under military cover.

Radio Svoboda's investigation details numerous victims of abuse by fellow servicemen and commanders. Critically, this brutality occurs IN THE REAR - Russian conscripts don't need frontline deployment to experience the "second army of the world's" horrors. Signing a contract offers no guarantee of avoiding the assault battalions or the torture that precedes them.

For LGBT individuals, Russia offers little safety in civilian life. In the military, soaked in hatred and prison culture, survival becomes nearly impossible. Bykov's testimony exposes what Putin's propaganda conceals: an institution that destroys its own personnel before they ever face the enemy.

The "I Want to Live" project continues documenting these atrocities while offering russian soldiers a path to surrender and survival.

Sources: I Want to Live Telegram Channel, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty