Monday, October 23, 2023

Russian Courts Handed Down Far More Sentences for Military Crimes This Year than Last

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 20 – During the first seven months of 2023, Russian courts found 1270 people guilty of crimes against the military code, 2.5 times the number (543) they found guilty of such violations for the same period a year earlier, according to data released by the Russian Supreme Court.

            Russian military personnel also were found guilty of 40 percent more crimes of all kinds between that period in 2022 and the same period this year (t.me/mozhemobyasnit/16339 and spektr.press/news/2023/10/20/rossijskih-voennyh-v-shest-raz-chasche-stali-osuzhdat-za-umyshlennoe-ubijstvo-mozhet-obyasnit/).

            Among the military crimes for which people were sentences are desertion, failure to obey orders, AWOL, faking illness to avoid service, and surrendering voluntarily without orders to do so. Among non-military crimes, there was a sharp jump in the number of sentences for murderes and for narcotics use.

            Other news agencies have reported similar trends for especially serious non-military code crimes (spektr.press/news/2023/10/18/voennye-v-2023-godu-sovershili-rekordnoe-kolichestvo-tyazhkih-prestuplenij-protiv-lichnosti-mediazona/ and t.me/svobodnieslova/3062).

            Obviously, at least part of the increase in military crimes reflects the situation among Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, and some of these criminal actions may represent a kind of desperate protest against being forced to fight a war there. 

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