Global Courant
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — When Ivan Rossomakhin came home from the war in Ukraine three months ago, his neighbors in the village east of Moscow were terrified.
Three years ago, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to a long prison term, but was then released volunteer to fight with Wagner’s private military contractor.
Back in Novy Burets, Rossomakhin drunkenly wandered the streets of the hamlet 800 kilometers (about 500 miles) east of Moscow, holding a pitchfork and threatening to kill everyone, residents said.
Despite police promises to keep an eye on the 28-year-old ex-con, he was arrested in a nearby town on charges of stabbing to death an elderly woman he once rented a room from. He reportedly confessed to the crime less than 10 days after his return.
Rossomakhin’s case is not an isolated one. The Associated Press found at least seven other cases in recent months where convicts recruited by Wagner were identified as involved in violent crimes, either through Russian media reports or in interviews with victims’ relatives at locations from Kaliningrad in the west to Siberia in the east.
Russia has gone to great lengths to replenish its forces in Ukraine, including deploying Wagner’s mercenaries there. This has far-reaching consequences, as became apparent this weekend when the leader of the group sent his private army march to Moscow in a short-lived uprising. Another is the use of convicts in combat.
The British Ministry of Defense warned of the consequences in March, saying that “the sudden influx of often violent offenders with recent and often traumatic combat experience is likely to pose a major challenge to Russian wartime society” when their service ends.
Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said he had recruited 50,000 convicts for Ukraine, an estimate also made by Olga Romanova, director of the group for the rights of prisoners Russia behind bars. Western military officials say convicts there made up the bulk of Wagner’s force.
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About 32,000 have returned from Ukraine, Prigozhin said last week, for his failed uprising against the defense ministry. Romanova estimated it at about 15,000 in early June.
Those prisoners who agreed to join Wagner were given freedom after their service, and President Vladimir Putin recently confirmed that he was “signing decrees of pardon” for convicts who fought in Ukraine. Those decisions have not been made public.
Putin recently said that recidivism rates among those released from prison by serving are much lower in Ukraine than the average in Russia. But rights advocates say fears that those rates will rise as more convicts return from war are not necessarily unfounded.
“People form a complete absence of a connection between crime and punishment, an act and its consequences,” Romanova said. “And not only convicts see it. Free people see it too – that you can do something terrible, sign up for war and come out as a hero.’
Rossomakhin was not seen as brave when he returned from fighting in Ukraine, but rather as an “extremely restless, troubled person,” police said during an encounter with frightened residents of Novy Burets that was filmed by a local broadcaster for the 85-year-old Yulia Buyskikh was killed. At one point, he was even arrested for breaking into a car and held for five days before police released him on March 27.
Two days later Buyskikh was killed.
“She knew him and opened the door when he came to kill her,” her granddaughter, Anna Pekareva, wrote on Facebook. “Every family in Russia should be afraid of such visitors.”
Other incidents included the robbery of a store in which a man held a saleswoman at knifepoint; a car theft by three ex-convicts in which the owner of the vehicle was beaten and forced to hand it over to them; the sexual assault of two schoolgirls; and two other murders in addition to the one in Novy Burets.
In Kaliningrad, a man has been arrested for assaulting an 8-year-old girl after taking her away from her mother, according to a local media report and one of the girl’s relatives.
The man had approached the mother and boasted about his prison sentence and his Wagner service in Ukraine, according to the relative, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity for security reasons. The relative asked, “How many of them will return soon?”
When recruited, Wagner usually offered convicts six-month contracts, according to media reports and rights groups. Then they can return home, unlike regular soldiers, who cannot terminate their contracts and leave the service as long as Putin’s mobilization decree remains in effect. However, it was not immediately clear whether these conditions will be met after Prigozhin’s failed mutiny.
Prigozhin, himself a former convict, recently acknowledged that some repeat offenders were Wagner fighters, including Rossomakhin in Novy Burets and a man arrested in Novosibirsk for sexually assaulting two girls.
Putin recently said that the recidivism rate is “10 times lower” among those convicts who went to Ukraine than among those in general. “The negative consequences are minimal,” he added.
There is not yet enough data to assess the fallout, according to a Russian criminology expert who spoke on the condition of anonymity for security reasons.
This year’s incidents “fit the pattern of repeat offenders,” and chances are those convicts would have committed crimes again upon release, even if they had not been recruited by Wagner, the expert said. But there’s no reason to expect an explosive spike in crime, because a significant number of ex-convicts could probably refrain from breaking the law for some time, especially if they were well paid by Wagner, the expert said.
He expects crime rates to rise after the war, but not necessarily because of the use of convicts. It’s something that usually happens after conflict, he said.
According to a 2020 research document from the Russian State Prison Service, the Soviet Union sent 1.2 million convicts to fight in World War II. It didn’t say how many returned, but the criminology expert told the AP that a “significant number” ended up back behind bars after years of committing new crimes.
Romanova from Russia Behind Bars says there have been many disturbing episodes of convicts returning to civilian life after a stint in Ukraine.
Law enforcement and justice officials who have spent time and resources pursuing these criminals may feel humiliated to see many of them on the loose without serving their sentences, she said.
“They see that their work is not needed,” added Romanova.
Some convicts caught committing crimes after returning home sometimes try to turn the tables on police by accusing them of discrediting those who fought in Ukraine — now a serious crime in Russia, she said.
When asked if that scares those in the police force, Romanova said: “You bet. A prosecutor does not want 15 years in prison.”
Yana Gelmel, a lawyer and rights advocate who also works with convicts, said in an interview that those returning from Ukraine often act with bravado and bravura, demanding special treatment because they have “defended the Motherland”.
She depicts a grim life in Russian prisons, with unbridled and unceasing violence, extreme isolation, constant submission to guards and a strict hierarchy among prisoners. For prisoners in those conditions, “what would his mental state be?” Gelmel asked.
Add to that the trauma of being thrown into battle – especially in places like Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, the longest and bloodiest in the conflict, where Wagner troops died by the thousands,
“Imagine – he went to war. If he survived…he saw so much there. In what state will he return?” she added.
Meanwhile, prison recruiting for service in Ukraine apparently continues — just not by Wagner, human rights groups say. The Ministry of Defense is now looking for volunteers there and offering them contracts.
Romanova said the ministry had recruited nearly 15,000 convicts in June, though officials there did not respond to a request for comment.
Unlike Wagner, the Defense Ministry will soon have legal grounds — laws that allow it to employ convicts were swiftly passed by parliament and signed by Putin last week.
And unlike Wagner, the ministry offers 18-month contracts, but many recruits have not been given anything to sign, putting them in a precarious position, Romanova said.
Prisoners’ enthusiasm for serving has not waned, she said, even after thousands have died on the battlefield.
“Russian roulette is our favorite game,” said Romanova grimly. “National Entertainment.”
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