Vladimir Putin has pardoned a brutal killer who murdered his ex-wife, leaving women terrified as he returned to his home city.
Vadim Tekhov, 33, was jailed in 2021 on a 16-year sentence for killing Regina Gagieva, 22, in a frenzied knife attack at her office.
CCTV footage of the brutal killing shocked Russia and the ex-policeman was jailed after the woman died of 15 kitchen knife wounds.
But Putin's officials took the killed out of jail early and sent him to Ukraine to fight. After six months on the frontline, the dictator pardoned and freed Tekhov, who was one of thousands of murderers unlocked from Russian jails to fight in the war.
Now his ex-wife's sister Roxana Zaseeva has seen him in the Russian city of Vladikavkaz - where he killed Regina - wandering the streets eating a shawarma.
The woman said: "The damp earth should devour him, but he calmly walks along the pavement and eats.
"Right now, multiple lives are in danger. Do our penal services not understand this?
"Are they waiting for another kill? Do you think that if he comes to my house, it will be possible to simply talk to him?"
Ms Zaseeva said she feels she must leave the city but warned other women are at risk from the killer who stalked her sister before killing her.
The top official in the Russian region - North Ossetia - has slammed the decision to free Tekhov, but said he was helpless to act due to Putin's law to entice jail convicts to fight by vowing to pardon them after six months.
Sergei Menyailo said: "I wouldn't have done that. But we all live under the law. So we cannot intervene in this situation."
He vowed that the brutal killer would not receive a medal from the region for courage, adding: "If I was him - God forbid - I would not come back.
"Sometimes there are questions that are hard to answer.
"They are beyond our scope of authority, beyond ethical and moral norms.
"Unfortunately, life sometimes dictates slightly different conditions."
He fought in a unit of the regular army which followed the example of the pro-Putin mercenary force Wagner in recruiting convicts.
A video issued by state investigators shows Tekhov brandishing a knife as he demanded to see his ex-wife's iPhone, suspecting her of starting a new relationship.
The mother-of-one refused and he savagely attacked her, sustaining fatal wounds and dying in hospital.
Regina's mother Zema said: "All the time he was jealous.
"He told [my daughter]: ‘If you are not with me, you will not be with anyone.
"‘Be with me, or I will kill you’."
The victim's sister said: "If I had my way, I would sentence him to be executed by shooting."
He was even allowed home despite being detained briefly for allegedly seeking to sell drugs to Putin's troops.
She went to see prison officials over his release and said: "I wanted to understand how they could release such a killer.
"But there they sympathised with me and said that they could not do anything."
Hundreds of mourners attended Regina's funeral in Vladikavkaz.
