They kill on the front and kill at home. Russia is teeming with murderers and soldiers with PTSD
The victims’ families are frightened.
The text was originally published in The Washington Post.
Note: The article contains a description of sexual, physical and mental violence.
The peaceful February Sunday morning in Ačinsk, Siberian, suddenly interrupted cries. After the snowy course, a woman ran, persecuted by a man who dropped her to the ground and stabbed her neck.
Yekaterina Polianská was still screaming as she gradually faded her life, while Kirill Chellygin, her ex -husband, escaped from the crime scene.
According to the authorities, CHIFEGIN only killed the Polish new partner Vjačeslav Komarenko for a while. Both murders from 9 February captured cameras And they were broadcast by the local media Osa Ačinsk.
He then arrested and accused of crimes, but in the meantime he asked for release from prison to leave to fight for Ukraine and to avoid imprisonment.
A similar situation is not uncommon because the already established progress of criminals imprisoned in Russia.
An unusual step, however, is that people from the local community began writing a petition on Change.org on April 19, expressing concern that Čeplygin one day returned with « the intention of completing what it started » just as many others have already done.
In the article you can read:
- How many Russians have already injured or killed criminals,
- What do Russian commanders do to their troops,
- Russian citizens perceive the situation.
The focus of crimes
Perhaps the most dynopical feature in the Russian war company President Vladimir Putin It is a policy that palsy criminals, including murderers and sexual rapists, if they go to the war – and at the same time allow those who survive to return home later.
Russian communities are now facing a sharp increase in crimes by returning veterans and criminals who are wondering the war to get out of prison. In New Putin’s Russia, however, soldiers are new heroes and hard censorship leaves only a little space for their criticism.
A year ago, Ukraine also adopted a law that allows criminals to fight criminals, but those who were convicted of murder, sexual offenses or violations of national security laws are banned from entering the army.
According to a survey of independent medium, Vjorstko was from the Russian invasion due to the violence or illegal acts of soldiers killed or seriously injured at least 754 Russians, including 196 murders, although the media estimates that the actual number is much higher. Seventy -six victims were not killed by former prisoners, but ordinary soldiers who returned from the war.
Putin will meet Prime Minister Fico in Moscow, the Kremlin announced Read
According to data from the Ministry of Interior, Russia recorded 617 301 violent crimes last year, the highest number since 2014, and analysts say that the crime increase is likely to participate in the culture of crime and impunity in the Russian army. In 2023 there were 589 thousand, which is an increase compared to 437 300 in 2017.
« At the same time, the front line in Russia has become a focus of other forms of crime – these are crimes committed on soldiers by their commanders, » said Ksenia Kirill, analyst at the European Policy Analysis Center. « The problem is the complete impunity of such people. »
From the Russian independent media, as well as from patriotic military bloggers, there are often reports of commanders who « force » their troops – killing them, usually by sending them to suicide missions. Other penalties that are allegedly imposed by soldiers include beating, closing in cages or holes in the ground and binding to the trees.
The insufficient psychological support for war veterans suffering from post -traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and increased alcohol consumption in Russia after invasion of Ukraine are also due to this. According to the federal service to control the alcohol and tobacco market, alcohol and wine consumption reached a record 2.3 billion liters in 2023, four percent more than the previous record of 2022.
111 wounds
The petition of the inhabitants of Ačinska, which also contains a freezing photo of the blade with a knife raised, was a rare case of resistance to the locals against the return of these people to their municipalities.
« We residents of the city, acquaintances and friends of the victims will have to be wary of returning from a special military operation, looking on the streets across the shoulders and worry about our relatives, » the petition said.
The Washington Post was unable to connect with the lawyer of CHIMEGINA. However, the Poljanská mother Nadezhda told Ačinsk that CHIFYGIN wanted to go to war to avoid punishment and not to atone for his guilt. « We are afraid that nothing will stop him and will avenge us all. »
For the victims’ families, the view of the murderers is never ending trauma. Oksana Pechtelevová, whose 23-year-old daughter, was killed by her former friend Vladislav Kanjus, often sees on the social networks of his photographs, where she usually enjoys a party.
It was a brutal murder. Two months after their breakup, the student came to his apartment in Kemer in January 2020 for her things where she attacked her. According to the court records, the police did not respond to repeated phone calls to the neighbors who listened to her shouting and crying for the clock, while Kanjus raped her, Bil, stabbed and strangled an electrical cable. There were 111 wounds on her body. Kanjus was sentenced for her murder, but he served less than a year of 17 years of sentence before he decided to go to the front.
The family protested against this decision, sent letters to Putin and met officials, but without success. They never told them that he was sent to war, or that Putin pardoned him in 2023 and demobilized.
« He’s a cruel killer. He’s a maniac, and yet we have no opportunity to find out where it is, » Pechtelev said in an interview. « What people who now live in the same communities with criminals who have killed their relatives are horrible, it’s a nightmare. »
Seven to ten years. Russia is building a new army, but not for war in Ukraine Read
The cascade of such crimes of returned soldiers was documented by the more independent Russian media. In January, a 23-year-old soldier in Naľčik in the south of Russia was accused of murder after allegedly attacked an 87-year-old woman he met in the park and beat her for more than 20 minutes, causing her death according to the Russian investigation committee.
According to the state media, Nikolai Ogolobyak, who was sentenced to cannibalism and the murder of four teenagers in 2010, decided to fight in the war, was injured and then returned home. He soon had problems with the law again and last August he received a ten -year drug sentence in Jaroslavl in Jaroslavl. He told the local media that he would apply for a return to the war.
The independent Astra news portal also reported two prison mercenaries Groups Wagnerwho were later arrested and accused of rape of girls aged seven and nine years of independent incidents.
In February 2024, another pardon murderer who fought in the war, 35-year-old Viktor Savvinov, was wandering around his village of Kutan in the Far East of Yakutsk on the day of his homeland and complained that people did not show enough respect. He got drunk with his friend and then broke his head with a crowd, and later killed 64-year-old Valentina Fedor, the best teacher of Russia. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison for both murders.
Fedor’s daughter for local media Sacha Day said her mother was attacked because she announced Savvinov to the police for a public drunkenness previous night.
« She had her entire hands out of her blood because she was trying to defend. After the battle, he took the ax and hit her head. She didn’t even show her body, so he crippled her very much, » the portal quoted.
On the website of the court on the Russian social network Vkontakte, one of the locals asked: « Will he again sign a contract in a special military operation? »
Without any barriers
Already after withdrawing Soviet troops from Afghanistan in year 1989 Russia has seen an increase in the crime of returning veterans. According to the Kommersant newspaper, approximately 372,000 returning veterans regularly used alcohol and drugs, and by the end of 1989, approximately 3700 were convicted of murder and robbery. The guilt was trauma from the war and the lack of psychological services for returnee.
Analysts argue that in today’s war they have deepened the trauma caused by the horrors of the conflict, the brutal methods of officers in ensuring discipline and management of units.
Many soldiers on the Russian front line towards their commanders feel anger because they cannot defend themselves. Dozens of them have recorded videos describing the incompetence or crimes of their officers, including drug use, corruption, stealing the salaries of soldiers, blackmail, drug trafficking and theft.
Twenty -four -year -old Danil Ačipov, a former engineer who threw his hand in the air with a detonator from the grenade and fled to France to avoid fighting in Ukraine, told The Washington Post that soldiers feel trapped in a system Battles also broke out among the soldiers and the drunkenness has spread.
It served in the offensive unit with high mortality, and of the fifteen members of the unit survived the offensive operation, usually three.
« All commanders were evil. They did not want to you like people. They didn’t care about human life. They didn’t care how many (of us) would kill, » he said. « The soldiers hated them. »
Danil Ačipov, a 24-year-old former engineer who fired his hand with a grenade to avoid fighting in Ukraine. (Source: Danil Acipov)According to him, many changed the war. « They have a PTSD. They have become very aggressive and act without any barriers. »
Despite this neglect of returning veterans, they are portrayed by official media as a new elite in Russia, which makes their criticism difficult.
« Now the situation is much worse because the state is legalizing these crimes. Yes, it is an official government policy. These people simply will not become criminals no matter what they actually have done, » said Kirill of the Center for European Policy Analysis.
In 2023, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that criminals could « undo their crimes » with blood on the battlefield – in offensive brigades, under bullets and under missiles. However, this does not leave any legal means to the families of the murdered to defend themselves.
Pechtelev said that violent criminals should not be sent to war or pardon. « If they are free, they feel that there is no punishment for them. And this will continue. »
« Ordinary people like us can express their dissatisfaction, their anger. They can even organize protest gatherings, but nothing will happen until the decision is made at the highest level, » she said. « We respect the law. We are people who comply with the law but no one respects us. »
