S9 Ep142: BONUS - Aiden Aslin - How Roman Abramovich Helped Him Escape 6 Months Of Non-Stop Russian Torture & The Death Penalty!

The Rig Biz Podcast

Blind Dog Productions

Business, Rugby, Comedy Interviews, Comedy, Marketing, Sports

4.9 • 952 Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pinned down at a Mariupol steelworks, after a month-long siege and running out of supplies, Aiden was part of the mass surrender of over a thousand Ukrainian troops, in April 2022. Then his real ordeal began.
Singled out for his British passport, Aiden was interrogated, tortured, stabbed, turned into a propaganda zombie, tried by a kangaroo court and then sentenced to death. A victim of a catalogue of abuses of international law, Aiden struggled to cling on to any hope of survival. Certain that he was going to be executed, he was eventually freed in a prisoner exchange and permitted to return home.
In this interview, Aiden reveals the full, harrowing story of his time fighting in Putin's war, of his six months in Russian captivity, and of his hardened resolve to defend the freedoms of the people of Ukraine.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, ladies and gentlemen, today I'm delighted to be joined by Aidenazlin, who's been all over the headlines for the last year since his release from Russia.
0:11.0	He was captured there fighting for the Ukrainians, made a prison of war, tortured every day
0:14.7	and given the death penalty, but miraculously escaped. And in a part, thanks to a certain
0:19.0	Mr. Roman Abreamage, his story is ridiculous. Prior to that, he was fighting against ISIS for a couple of years.
0:25.0	He's now bringing out a book with the award-winning journalist John Sweeney called Putin's prisoner.
0:29.0	So just sit back, relax and enjoy this ridiculous tale.
0:33.0	Well exactly six years after returning from war in Syria,
0:37.0	you were being sent to the front lines at the outbreak of the war last February,
0:41.0	sent to Maripole to fight off the Russian advance, but you quickly find
0:44.9	yourself under siege for a month.
0:47.1	How grim was the reality of the situation in the Steelworks in Maripole?
0:50.7	So when the initial invasion started and we did end up pulling back to
0:55.3	like Maripel as soon as I like heard that we were encircled I was like this isn't
0:59.3	going to end good for us especially like after being in Syria and seeing how like previous like attempts to
1:05.2	like get out of a encirclement like with ISIS, they just get ripped apart by artillery or
1:10.4	airstrikes. It was hard mentally to prepare for it, but I think what helped me a little
1:16.3	bit was just because I accepted that it was going to happen.
1:21.1	But I mean how squalid with the living conditions? You knew that the Russians
1:23.8	were advancing. You couldn't really escape unless you rest your life. I mean did you guys still have food? Did you
1:29.1	do the Russians? So for the first month we were okay with like food like we had quite a bit of supplies like
1:36.8	last it was until the first week of April when we'd pretty much exhausted all the supplies we had.
1:43.0	By the 9th of the 8th of April, we'd pretty much like ran out of food.
	...

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