“Are the Russians doing it, or their Muslim mercenaries??”
The law of agency. Your agents act on your behalf; thus, your agent’s actions are your actions. So, it doesn’t really matter if the Russians are doing it or their agents are doing it. Same same.
“...your agent’s actions are your actions...”
true enough - but as we have learned from the recent past, Muslims are more proficient at cruelty. It’s in their DNA.