Putin releases convicted murderer, 24, from prison to join military after strangling girlfriend and storing her body in a barrel

MAD Vladimir Putin has freed a murderer who strangled his girlfriend and kept her corpse inside a barrel so he can fight in the war against Ukraine.

Evil Alexander Golubev, who is 24 years old, had served only three months of his sentence when he was released by President Putin due to the urgent need for additional troops in the fight. This decision came after it was disclosed that the dictator had suffered casualties of approximately 700,000 soldiers.

The convicted murderer has boasted he is working as a military pen pusher and “having fun” far from the bloody action on the frontline.

Footage shows Golubev at a crime reenactment demonstrating how he killed his long-term girlfriend Viktoria Kurman, 23, who was a computer graphics designer.

When she vanished, the killer pretended to be her, texting messages to her mum Olga Lishefay.

He partied at his flat with friends, informing all of them Viktoria had walked out on him.

But after more than a month, Golubev went missing and stopped messaging.

Viktoria’s mum Olga then became deeply worried and suspicious.

She went to the flat in Veliky Novgorod along with evil Golubev’s mum Marina, and a male friend of the couple.

They found it a mess – with an odour that made them wretch, coming from the green plastic barrel on the balcony which had been glazed to provide more living space as part of the flat.

Sickening footage shows Olga using a knife to open the barrel, cutting through many yards of sticky tape used to tightly  seal the lid.

Olga said: “I looked inside and I saw a black plastic bag covered with white [baking powder].

“I rang the police and explained that my daughter went missing and that a barrel was found on the balcony.”

After this, operatives arrived who removed the lid and opened the plastic bag.

Olga recalled the trauma, saying how she was stood nearby and “saw hair“.

She continued: “It was clear that it was Vika [Viktoria], because she had tips of her hair highlighted.

“It was her hair, I recognised it.”

Cops took away the barrel, and the body was confirmed as hers.

Unemployed Golubev was found and arrested five days later, and at his trial in April was sentenced to nine and half years in a strict-regime penal colony.

This is after he fully confessed to killing Viktoria.

He told investigators: “I was afraid she would find out that I was cheating on her and at that moment I just didn’t know what to do.”

The cold-blooded murderer used the strap of her bag to strangle her, and wedged a sock in her mouth to “get rid of the wheezing”.

Then he bound her with electrical tape to make her body a more “convenient” shape to fit in a barrel used to store food or drink, he confessed.

Three months later, Viktoria’s mother was shocked to be told he was no longer in jail and  his whereabouts were now a “state secret”.

But it soon became clear that he had been sent to the war under a mad Vlad scheme to release prisoners to fight.

He messaged Viktoria’s friend Alexandra saying that he was “hoping he’d be killed by a missile”, which she thinks was him pretending to be sorry about killing the young woman.

Alexandra said: “Honestly, at first I almost felt sorry for him.

“And then he wrote to his friend saying how he doesn’t care, how much fun he’s having [in the army], how he was in a safe and quiet spot doing paperwork.”

If he remains alive, Golubev will be released after completing military service with his murder conviction expunged from the criminal record.

Golubev is not the only horrific criminal to be released by Putin, as the tyrant is desperate for more soldiers to fight in his bloody and illegal war.

It comes after Nato chief Mark Rutte said that every week there are “over 10,000 killed or wounded on all sides in Ukriane,” with “over 1 million casualties since February 2022.”

The figure suggests Ukraine has lost around 300,000 soldiers as Britain estimates Russia’s losses are 700,000.

Rutte announced the grim milestone as he warned the 32 national alliance was unprepared for war.

The straight-talking ex-Dutch Prime Minister said: “We are not ready for what is coming our way in four to five years.


“Danger is moving towards us at full speed. 
 We must not look the other way.

“We must face it. What is happening in Ukraine could happen here too.”