The sad journey of Alexey Bugaev, former player killed in Ukraine

Alexey Bugaev, former defender for the Russian national team, died at the end of December 2024 while serving as a member of the Russian army in the war in Ukraine. At 43 years old, he found himself on the front line of the conflict, having chosen to enlist to avoid serving a sentence of almost ten years in prison for drug trafficking.

The story of Bugaev, who was once considered one of the greatest talents in Russian football, exposes the consequences of the policy of Vladimir Putin’s regime, which has even recruited convicts to fight in the invasion of the neighboring country.

Bugaev was arrested in 2023 for possession of nearly half a kilogram of mephedrone, a synthetic drug he was about to sell illegally. During the trial, he admitted guilt, regretting the situation. Shortly after being sentenced in September 2024, Bugaev decided not to serve the long prison sentence and preferred to risk his life in the war against the Ukrainians. According to the recruitment scheme implemented by Russia, convicts who agree to fight are pardoned from their criminal sentences.

Alexey Bugaev began his professional career in 2001 at Torpedo Moscow. Versatile, he played both as a defender and as a left-back, characteristics that impressed local coaches. According to the British newspaper The GuardianVitaliy Shevchenko, the coach who gave Bugaev his first opportunity in professional football, recalled in an interview with the Russian newspaper Sport Express that “Aleksey won a lot of balls and knew how to initiate attacks with quality”.

In 2004, Bugaev was called up to the Russian national team and participated in two games at the European Championship held in Portugal, a competition that was won by the Greek national team. Despite showing potential when facing big names like Luís Figo and the still young Cristiano Ronaldo, his career began to fall apart soon after the tournament.

Upon returning to Torpedo Moscow, Bugaev started missing training and demonstrating undisciplined behavior. The club lost patience with him and traded him to Lokomotiv Moscow, but not even experience under veteran Russian coach Yuri Syomin was enough to stabilize his career. In addition to Lokomotiv and Torpedo Moscow, Bugaev also played for Tom Tomsk, Khimki and Krasnodar, all in Russia.

Valeriy Petrakov, coach who led Bugaev at Tom Tomsk in 2006, told Guardian that the player “had a serious problem with alcohol”, however, “he was brilliant, with speed, strength and good positioning”

“But it was all in vain,” lamented Petrakov.

Bugaev’s alcohol dependence was widely reported by former teammates. To the GuardianDmitry Tarasov, former Russian national team midfielder and Bugaev’s teammate at Tom Tomsk, said: “He was a great defender, but alcohol destroyed him. We had to look for it in very bad places. It was an illness.”

In 2010, at the age of 29, Bugaev ended his professional career. In the following years, he tried to reinvent himself, but his alcohol addiction and accumulated debts led him into the world of crime. In 2014, he gave an interview to the Russian newspaper Soviet Sportwhere, controversially, he offered the journalist a drink and declared: “I don’t regret anything.”

Bugaev, who once faced the best players in Europe, saw his fate sealed in a conflict that has already claimed the lives of thousands of other Russian convicts, as well as innocent civilians and soldiers on both sides.