Paul Goble
Staunton, Aug. 17 – Serious crime in the Southern and North Caucasus Federal Districts rose last year to the highest level in more than a decade, the combined results, experts say, of the impact of the war in Ukraine and economic dislocation and even collapse in some parts of these regions.
The greatest increase was in Kalmykia where serious crime rose 79 percent between 2022 and 2023. Other federal subjects with large increases were Rostov and Volgograd oblasts, the Kuban, the Adygeya, and Karachayevo-Cherkessia (kavkazr.com/a/nasilie-stanovitsya-normoy-voyna-i-rost-prestupnosti-na-yuge-i-severnom-kavkaze/33084121.html).
Russian and foreign experts with whom the Kavkazr portal spoke link these increases to the impact of the war in Ukraine across the region. The war’s impact includes the return of veterans suffering from PTSD who commit more crimes than others, propaganda that celebrates the use of violence, and the dislocation and economic problems that the war has caused.
What is striking is that these increases are taking place while the war is still going on. In most cases, the greatest impact of wars on crime happen after the war is over. If that proves to be the case in Russia, then the future of that country as far as crime is concerned is likely to be far more dire than conditions are now.
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