Paul Goble
Staunton, Nov. 17 – Veterans of Putin’s war in Ukraine can now count on receiving lighter sentences for any crimes they commit on returning home than non-veterans who may commit the same or analogous crimes, according to an investigation of recent court verdicts by the Verstka news agency.
Some may dismiss this as the natural gratitude of Russian officials to those who have been willing to fight for their country against Ukraine, but such a pattern is dangerous not only now but over the longer term (verstka.media/myagkie-prigovory-ugolovnikam-esli-oni-za-uchastie-v-voyne/).
On the one hand, it may encourage more criminals to join up confident they’ll be able to return to their life of crime after they return with what will be an effective “get out of jail free” card in their pockets. But on the other, it will generate more hostility to them and promote the rise of criminal groups like those which plagued Russia during and after the Afghan war.
Consequently, any short term benefit the Putin regime may get from such practices in terms of recruitment will be more than undercut by the enormous costs of getting rid of these new “Afghantsy” as the earlier criminals were known lest they lead to the further criminalization of Russian life.
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