Tempo di assassini al servizio dello Stato: gli “eroi” russi inondano le strade di violenza

“I am a veteran of a special military operation and I will kill you! “These were the words Irina heard when she was attacked by a man in Artyom in the Russian Far East. She was just returning from a party when the man kicked her and started beating her with a crutch. His blows were so strong that he broke his crutch. When the police arrived, the man showed them a document proving that he had been in Ukraine and claimed that thanks to his service “nothing will happen to him”, wrote the BBC News news server.

The attack on Irina is just one of many reported cases of violence perpetrated by soldiers returning from Ukraine. The independent Russian news website Vjorstka estimates that the returnees killed at least 242 Russians and seriously injured another 227.

Like the man who beat Irina, many of the attackers had previous convictions and were released from prison specifically to join Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The BBC estimates that the mercenary group Wagner (Vagnerov in the Russian transcription) recruited more than 48,000 convicts to fight in Ukraine. When the group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash last year, the Russian Ministry of Defense took over prison recruitment.

These cases have a serious impact on Russian society, said sociologist Igor Eidman. “This is a very serious problem and it has the potential to get worse. All traditional notions of good and evil are turned upside down,” he told the BBC. “People who have committed heinous crimes – murderers, rapists, cannibals and pedophiles – do not just escape punishment by going to war. It is unprecedented that they are being hailed as heroes,” he added.

There are a number of reasons why Russian soldiers who were lucky enough to return from war think they are above the law. Official media call them “heroes” and President Vladimir Putin has called them Russia’s new “elite.” Those recruited into the army from prisons either had their convictions overturned or were pardoned.

It is not at all unusual for released convicts to return from the war in Ukraine, commit crimes again and escape punishment a second time by returning to the front. This drives some police officers to despair.

“Four years ago, I sent him to prison for seven years,” police officer Grigory told the Novaya Gazeta website. “And suddenly here he is standing in front of me again and saying: ‘You can’t do anything, officer. Now is our time. The time of those who shed blood in a special military operation’.

Russian courts routinely use participation in the war against Ukraine as a reason to award lighter sentences. However, many cases do not even make it to court. Moscow has introduced a new law against “discrediting the Russian armed forces”, which has made some victims of crimes committed by veterans afraid to come forward.

Olga Romanova, head of the non-governmental organization for the rights of prisoners Russia behind bars, says that the feeling of impunity increases the level of crime. “The main consequence is the gap between crime and punishment in the public mind. If you commit a crime, it is far from certain that you will be punished,” Romanova told the BBC.

In 2023, the number of serious crimes registered in Russia increased by almost ten percent, and in the first half of this year, the number of soldiers convicted of crimes more than doubled compared to the same period last year.

Sociologist Anna Kuleshova claims that violence is becoming more acceptable in Russian society, especially since criminals can now escape punishment by going to war.

“There is a tendency to legalize violence. The idea that violence is somehow the norm is likely to spread – violence at school, violence at home, violence in relationships and violence as a way to resolve conflicts. This is facilitated by the militarization of society, leaning towards conservatism and the romanticization of war. Violent crimes committed inside the country are avenged by the violence of war,” said Kuleshova.

if only they have more weapons of any kinds

If something like what happened to this poor woman doesn’t wake one up from his/her pro-Putin coma, I honestly can’t think of anything that will.

A journalist talked to a Russian on leave from the front in -22 (without him realizing he was talking to a journalist), and one of the things he said was that after killing some people in the war something changes in you, and that regular everyday situations where someone disagrees with him now completely fill him with rage and the thought “fine, I’ll just kill you right here and now”.