- Russia started recruiting tens of thousands of convicts to fight in penal units to boost its offensive against Ukraine, according to The Wall Street Journal.
- Convicts would sign a temporary contract to fight in the war and, in exchange, be pardoned for their crimes and allowed to return home if they survived, the WSJ reported.
- Many of these now-pardoned convicts are returning home and reportedly committing more crimes, frightening Russian communities.
Russian convicts who were pardoned in exchange for their service in the war effort against Ukraine are returning home and committing more crimes, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
Thousands of Russian convicts were given pardon deals if they agreed to a temporary contract to fight on the frontlines against Ukraine in penal units, like the “Storm Z” unit, which is viewed as a certain death sentence, according to the WSJ. Those convicts who survive are then free to return home to Russia, and many of them reengage in a life of crime, terrifying communities and undermining President Vladimir Putin’s claim that the war is protecting Russia. (RELATED: REPORT: Putin Pardoned Satanist Cannibal Murderer So He Could Go Fight In Ukraine)
“I don’t feel safe. Thousands of criminals are walking our streets,” Anna Pekaryova, a Russian civilian, told the WSJ. Pekaryova’s grandmother had been murdered by a convict who was pardoned after serving in a Russian penal unit.
“I have lost count how many times such crimes have happened,” she said.
Russia’s offensive against Ukraine was stalling in 2022 and required more troops, so the Kremlin turned to convicts for supply, according to the WSJ. Though it is unclear how many have been recruited for the war effort, more than 35,000 Russian convicts were released from prison from May 2022 to January 2023 – how many were released after that date is unclear.
Drunk recruits, insubordinate soldiers and convicts are among hundreds of military and civilian offenders pressed into Russian penal units known as ‘Storm-Z’ squads and sent to the frontlines in Ukraine this year. Few live to tell their tale https://t.co/4r2gavpefx
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 3, 2023
The penal units these convicts are placed into are often poorly equipped and get sent to the front lines of the war against Ukraine, and subsequently, a large number are killed in conflict, the WSJ reported. Most of the convicts who agreed to a temporary contract would rather serve under these conditions than spend years in prison.
“It’s still better than sitting in jail,” one convict told his mother in 2022, who warned him that agreeing to the deal was a “one-way ticket,” according to the WSJ.
Former Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who oversaw these penal units, said in June that approximately 32,000 convicts had fulfilled their agreements.
“I told you I need your criminal talents to kill the enemy at war,” Prigozhin said in a speech in January. “Now those criminal talents aren’t needed.”
A large number of these men – some of whom had been previously convicted of murder, rape and cannibalism – return home and begin committing crimes again, putting Russian communities on edge, according to the WSJ. Many have their records expunged on pardon, so when they subsequently commit more crimes, they can’t be tried as repeat offenders.
One man was serving time for drug-related charges and agreed to fight in Russia’s war effort in exchange for a pardon, according to the WSJ. He survived six months of conflict and, months after he returned home, was arrested on suspicion of being an accomplice in arson and the murder of six civilians.
Another pardoned convict committed a shooting in a cafe after he returned home and another is accused of raping two girls, according to the WSJ. One man, a repeat murderer, killed his sister by dousing her in gasoline and setting her on fire after he returned home.
The Kremlin said in November that it has no plans to change the new policy of letting convicts return to civilian life after serving in the war, according to the WSJ.
“This is inevitable,” Putin said in June in regards to pardoned convicts returning to crime. “But the negative consequences are minimal.”
Russia’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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