Siberia's most wanted man - 'Rambo of the Taiga' - nabbed after 4 months on run

Ruthless Vladimir Avdeyev, 38, is legendary for claims about his brute force. His party act was breaking bricks or Champagne bottles on his forehead. After he fled a high security prison in May though a 30 metre long tunnel dug by inmates, people in Irkutsk region were warned about the threat he posed. 

'He can kill any number of people with his bare hands - and will not be taken alive,' warned a former comrade-in-arms. 

The Rambo could 'hold out in the taiga for a month with a knife and a single match', said a prosecutor cited by local news site vsp.ru. 

Avdeyev was jailed in 2006 for butchering Central Asian migrant workers in a gruesome vendetta in his village in Irkutsk region. Two were decapitated with spades and four others were locked in a shed, which was set on fire. These four survived but were badly disfigured. Some locals claimed that Avdreyev was a vigilante leader and that Tajik migrants were drugging local youths then staging their suicides.

Investigators said that Avdreyev and his gang had killed Uzbeks, not Tajiks, but in any case the suicides were genuine. Avdreyev escaped his high security jail near Markovo with two other murderers and a robber. The three others were caught earlier.

The Siberian Rambo claimed he foraged for food in the wilderness and had not seen another person during his four months on the run. But the Russian media said foresters may have tipped off the police after he worked for them as a logger. 

He offered no surrender when police caught him, it is claimed, though few details have been given. 

'It is strange that he surrendered alive,' said one relative. 

A criminal probe was launched into how prison staff allowed the inmates to escape.