Russians Fear Crime has Risen Since War Began but Real Explosion will Occur when War Ends, Moscow Experts Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 23 – Many Russians believe that violent crime is on the rise not only because the authorities have downplayed this trend in their reports, prompting suspicions to the contrary among the population, but also because the Russian people rely on the Internet which plays up crimes.

            In fact, according to Russian experts surveyed by Irina Garina of Novaya gazeta, there likely has been a rise in crime in Russia since the war began but it has been limited by the fact that the draft and partial mobilization of young men has removed from the population the people most likely to commit crimes (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2023/07/23/dokopatsia-do-zhuti).

            As a result, these experts say, the real explosion in crime will occur when these men return from the front. Indeed, they say, the spread of the use of firearms in the commission of crimes far from the frontlines in Moscow and other cities shows how quickly that will happen as some men already are returning from the fighting.

            Garina notes that Russian government claims about the reduction of crimes over the last several years reflects not only the removal of young men from the population but also by the failure of the authorities to define as crimes things like violence in the home that most clearly are.

            On the basis of her conversations with the expert community, the Novaya gazeta journalist concludes that “the denial of violence in the home is the official policy of the state.”