Paul Goble
Staunton, Aug. 20 – Veterans of all wars often have problems adjusting to life away from the battlefield, and some turn to criminal activities. Putin’s war in Ukraine is now exception, but the situation with returning veterans in Russia is worse in that regard because the Kremlin actively recruited criminals to fight in Ukraine.
Consequently, in addition to the typical problems of adjustment to peacetime life, many of the veterans of Putin’s war have a criminal background and thus find it especially easy to return to their earlier way of life, something that has sent crime rates generally and violent crime in particular in Russia soaring to the highest levels in 12 years.
The crime wave is being reported even by Russian prosecutors and its sources in the criminal pasts of the soldiers Putin recruited is now being detailed by independent observers (moscowtimes.ru/2025/08/20/genprokuratura-viyavila-rekordnoe-za12-let-chislo-prestuplenii-vrossii-posle-massovogo-vozvrascheniya-ugolovnikov-sfronta-a172158).
For background on the recruitment of criminals to fight in Ukraine and the fears many have that these veterans are returning to a life of crime, a problem Russia did not have in earlier wars, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/03/some-russian-prison-camps-to-be.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/01/two-thirds-of-former-russian-convicts.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/07/russian-interior-ministry-expert-says.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/06/when-putins-war-in-ukraine-ends-impact.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/06/more-than-40-percent-of-russian.html).
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