Prisoners pardoned for serving in Ukraine return to Russia to kill again – NYT

Former Russian prisoners commit crimes after they return home from Ukraine/Collage 24 Channel

The Kremlin is actively recruiting Russian prisoners for the war in Ukraine, pardoning them for the crimes they committed. However, after former prisoners return to their homeland, they begin to commit new crimes.

Journalists from The New York Times have collected stories of several such Russian prisoners to show how widespread this phenomenon is. According to the authors of the material, the current situation with such incidents is tragic.

Stories of ex-prisoners of Russia who committed new crimes after returning from the war

Viktor Savvinov has already been caught several times to prison for various crimes, including robbery, car theft and assault, when he killed a drinking companion during an argument in 2020 by stabbing her with four knives in the chest.

Court in the Siberian region of Russia Yakutia sentenced him to 11 years in a maximum security colony. Therefore, when recruiters from the Wagner PMC offered him freedom and a life with a clean slate if he went to fight in Ukraine, Savvinov took advantage of this opportunity.

By February 2024, Savvinov served and returned to his native village of Kutana. That month, his fellow villagers said, on Defenders of the Fatherland Day, he wandered drunkenly through the snowy streets, loudly complaining that the villagers did not show him enough respect as a veteran. The next night, he killed two of them, according to a law enforcement report, by hitting a friend in the drink with a metal crowbar before killing his own aunt, who lived next door, by hitting her in the head with an ax and then setting the wooden house on fire.

Similar experiences struck other cities and towns. In Chita, near the border with Mongolia, a Russian “veteran” was sentenced to 14 years in prison in March for strangling a 22-year-old sex worker to death with his bare hands. In 2020, he was sentenced to 14 years for strangling and dismembering an 18-year-old girl.

In the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, a former Wagner PMC mercenary, who served 15 years on charges of theft and fraud, was sentenced in February 2024 to 17 years for raping two schoolgirls aged 10 and 12.

In April 2023, in Rostov-on-Don, 34-year-old Sergei Rudenko, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for strangling his girlfriend with a belt, after arriving from Ukraine, went to look for an apartment. After an argument with a real estate agent over a proposed rent, he strangled her with a cloth cord and then stabbed her in the neck. The district court sentenced Mr. Rudenko to more than 11 years in prison.

The Kremlin has stepped up the recruitment of prisoners to fight in the war in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new law on March 23 that was supposed to formalize the recruitment of prisoners to fight in the war in Ukraine. The document established a long list of relevant crimes that were expressly added to the Russian criminal code, including murder, robbery and some rapes.

Crimes that were not added to the law include terrorism, espionage or treason, as well as some sexual crimes involving minors.

The private military company Wagner began recruiting convicts in August 2022, promising a presidential pardon in exchange for signing six month contract. Before disbanding in 2023 after a failed rebellion against the Kremlin, the group said it had recruited more than 50,000 prisoners.

According to Olga Romanova, head of the non-governmental organization Russia Behind Bars, which deals with prisoners' issues, many of these men died, some are still fighting, and approximately 15,000 former convicts have returned home.

Crimes committed by veterans, either from the Wagner group, or on the other hand, often go unnoticed. National media have mentioned only a few high-profile cases.

Experts say many of the prisoners return to their communities with a certain arrogance. They view their service as rehabilitation, and usually have money to continue living.

Among those pardoned after committing particularly heinous crimes and serving in Ukraine are: a serial killer from Sakhalin, a notorious cannibalist, a member of a Satanist sect convicted of ritual murder, and a man who killed his ex-girlfriend by brutally torturing her for hours.

Putin himself has downplayed the issue of pardoned convicts committing new crimes . Although relatives of victims and other local residents often actively criticize the release of criminals.