A former Tennent’s brewery worker who left Scotland to fight against Ukraine for Vladimir Putin is trying to become a Russian citizen.
Jay Fraser said he wants to be granted permanent residency because of his “military service”. Fraser, 24, posted on X: “I still have my British passport and will be a dual citizen technically, but if I was to set foot on British soil, I’d be arrested.”
In response to a comment that said: “Good riddance, please never come back,” Fraser replied: “I never will.” Fraser, from Dunblane, Stirlingshire, previously revealed that he cut ties with family to join Russian forces on the front line in eastern Europe.
In a propaganda video of him in military gear with a Russian flag cap, he said: “I burned all my bridges and came here. I believe this is a war not only between Russia and Ukraine, but also a war between eastern and western civilisation.”
Fraser, who joined the Russian front line in August, said: “I came here not for money, or to boost my standard of living etc. but for ideological, philosophical, and spiritual reasons – I am not afraid to die for these.”
He called on others who wanted to “follow in my footsteps” to send him a message. And in another video posted on Christmas Day, Fraser said he had spent five years of his life “making beer for a living” in Glasgow before deciding to go to Russia “to change things up a little bit”.
Fraser’s announcement comes as his friend Ross McElvenny, of Newton Mearns, near Glasgow, revealed he had been discharged from hospital on Sunday following an operation to replace an eye, which he lost in combat, with a prosthetic. McElvenny, 25, was treated in hospital in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don after his military vehicle was shelled in the Donetsk region of Ukraine in November.
He also suffered serious chest and leg wounds in the incident but at the time said he was “in positive spirits and have plenty of friends helping me”. He posted: “Today is the day! Hospital discharge time.”
McElvenny was recruited as a volunteer for Putin’s 1099th Motorised Rifle Regiment against Ukraine. He is being investigated by police here and faces prosecution if he ever returns. Rangers fan McElvenny, who was sent a team scarf by one of his supporters at Christmas, said he had “no regrets” about joining Putin’s forces despite his injury.
He was granted Russian citizenship last month and said it was “one of the happiest moments of my life”. McElvenny also claimed in a post that he has “little to no contact with” his family in Scotland.
He told a follower: “You should visit Scotland if you haven’t already. That’s where I’m originally from though obviously I live in Russia now. Beautiful landscape back home but politically a mess. Decline.”
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