A court in Moscow convicted two Russians of setting up an illegal mercenary squad. Vadim Gusev and Pavel Sidorov were found guilty of deploying a 250-person unit in 2013 to fight in Syria's civil conflict as stated by the news website. Each faced up to eight years behind bars, but got away with three-year sentences at a closed trial.

The story was first reported by Islamist militants waging war on Syrian President Bashar Assad. The militants said they had routed some Russian mercenaries and published copies of IDs they said they seized in the process.

Life News said the Russians had been fighting against Assad, which contradicts previous reports, including video testimony by former squad members.

Squad members later said they were promised a relatively safe — and Kremlin-endorsed — job of protecting Syrian power plants.

But the ragtag band of Russian army and police veterans and Cossacks, dubbed the "Slavonic Corps," was instead sent on a 500-kilometer raid into enemy territory.

Regular squad members faced no prosecution in Russia, but neither were they reported to have been paid.

The Russian parliament is currently mulling the legalization of private military companies, a move endorsed in 2012 by President Vladimir Putin, but not legislated so far.

Media reports have claimed that Russian mercenaries fought for the separatists in the Ukrainian civil war earlier this year, but official Moscow denied it.