Moscow Not Sending Those Convicted of Draft Evasion to Prison, ‘Vyorstka’ Finds

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 18 – One of the more interesting anomalies of Russian judicial action since the start of Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine is that in the course of all of 2023 and the first half of 2024, Russian courts did not send to prison any of the 1378 men they convicted of draft evasion, Vyorstka reports.

            Instead, a handful were given suspended sentences or fined 100,000 rubles (1,000 US dollars) or even more, the independent Russian news outlet says, sentences that are unlikely to cause those who want to avoid service to think again (t.me/svobodnieslova/5780 reposted and discussed at nemoskva.net/2024/10/18/ni-odin-uklonist-ne-sel-v-tyurmu/).

            The absence of real sentences for this crime, especially at a time when serving personnel are now receiving them is striking and may very well reflect concerns that imposing harsh sentences for such actions might affect the sons of too many important people or bring the costs of the war home to a larger number of Russians.