War in Ukraine In Russia recruited criminals who return pardoned

War in Ukraine: In Russia, recruited criminals who return pardoned from the front terrorize the population

Latest News / By /

Former Russian prisoners and criminals returning to civilian life after fighting on the Ukrainian front are protected by the authorities. But they are contributing to the increase in violence in the country.

Does participating in war really allow you to atone for your crimes? Among the prisoners recruited by Russia to fight in Ukraine is Sergei Khadjikurbanov. As a former special forces police officer, he was involved in the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya on October 7, 2006. Convicted by the courts of one of the most sensational murders of the Putin era (committed on the day of the president’s birthday). ). Sergei Khadzhikurbanov should have remained in prison until 2030.

But last year he was recruited to fight in Ukraine and when his contract expired he was pardoned by the Russian president. He is free as air again. His lawyer announced this on Tuesday, November 14th. The news felt like a slap in the face. “An outrageous and arbitrary injustice,” denounced the journalist’s family.

Wagner started prison recruiting

This example is just one of thousands, as at the beginning of the war the Wagner militia recruited “cannon fodder” in prisons. The contract is clear: after six months at the front, it is possible to return to civilian life – you just have to survive.

In September 2022, then in January 2023, at least three videos show Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner’s boss, recruiting prisoners. On one of them he is in a penal colony, 800 km east of Moscow: “We recruit from the age of 22,” he says. “It is important to be in good physical condition (…) We are just looking” for fighters for the attack troops. (…) After six months you can return home. Anyone who wants can stay with us. But returning to prison is not an option. (…) Do you know anyone else? Who can get you out of here under such conditions? There are only two people capable of doing this. Me and God. And I…I’ll bring you alive.”

It appears that this practice was stopped in February 2023 due to a lack of volunteers: rumors about the harsh fighting conditions in Ukraine and the very high mortality of Wagner’s mercenaries have reached Russian prisons.

But the Russian authorities are adopting – quite officially – this principle of release in return for mobilization. Asked about this issue on Friday, November 10, Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, still assumed: “Those who were convicted, including for serious crimes, are paying for their crimes on the battlefield.”

Between 50,000 and 100,000 prisoners were drafted

How many assassins, murderers, rapists and criminals were recruited this way? According to the independent Russian media Meduza, between 40 and 50,000. 100,000, according to Olga Romanova, an exiled former journalist who advocates for the rights of prisoners and opposition activists in Russia. The Kremlin, for its part, never gave an official number.

Of course, many died. In January 2023, Meduza stated that more than 80% of these former prisoners were dead, injured or missing and that only 10,000 remained on the ground. In March, “more than 5,000 were released following a pardon after their contracts with Wagner expired,” Yevgeny Prigozhin announced in a message broadcast on Telegram.

Men returned to civilian life, their wages in their pockets and their patriotism on their shoulders, traumatized by war but protected by their presidential pardon or simply by the law prohibiting “discrediting any person participating in the “participates in a special military operation.”

Former criminals remain criminals

The consequences are sometimes dramatic. At the end of March, in the Kirov region, 600 km east of Moscow, an 85-year-old pensioner was killed by 28-year-old Ivan Rossomachin, a former prisoner who was sentenced to 10 years in prison before the war, returning from the front. Upon his return, the residents of his village mobilized in fear – without success – to have him removed. There are numerous examples of this type, which are usually reported in the local press.

On November 9, another independent exile media outlet, Aguentstvo, documented 17 cases of murderers who returned to Russia and were pardoned by the Kremlin. The newspaper Le Monde, which has examined each of their stories, says they involve “young girls raped and then killed, psychopaths, drifting alcoholics, murders of children, corpses burned, beheaded or thrown into the river.” At least three of them have started killing again since returning from Ukraine, often in equally barbaric circumstances.

Overall, the return of former prisoners is leading to an unprecedented increase in violence in Russian society. Violence for which there are no official statistics.