Back from the Front: Pardoned Killers Spread Fear and Terror in Russia Four Weeks of Torture – Palestinians in the Gaza Strip Criticize Israel’s Arrest Procedures

The pain of Vera Pechtelewa’s parents is difficult to imagine for outsiders. Nearly four years ago, her then 23-year-old daughter was brutally abused, raped and ultimately murdered by her ex-partner. The man from the Siberian city of Kemerovo was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the crime, but he is no longer there.

In early November it became known: Vera’s murderer had been pardoned months ago so that he could serve as a soldier in the Russian war against Ukraine. His release from prison was sealed by a decree from Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin himself.

Pekhteleva screamed for help for hours before she died

The killer’s compensation payments to Vera’s family should be suspended for the duration of his combat mission. ‘We were shocked. How can something like this happen?” asked Vera’s mother Oxana Pekhteleva in an interview with the independent portal “Bereg”. “And I am not the only one. Believe me, there are at least hundreds of such mothers.”

She received support from the well-known women’s rights activist Alyona Popova: “What should be done?” she asked on her Telegram channel – and gave the answer herself: “Don’t be silent! If we remain silent, we simply accept that such murderers walk our streets.” The crime against Vera Pekhteleva, who screamed in vain for help hours before her death, shocked people across the country in 2020 – and there is now great excitement about it the release of her tormentor. But this is not an isolated case.

Putin has called up hundreds of thousands of men

Russia has been waging a war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine for almost two years. The fighting is extremely expensive on both sides; according to NATO estimates, more than 300,000 soldiers have been killed or injured in the Russian army alone. Through a wave of mobilization last year, Putin sent hundreds of thousands of troops to the front, and the army is constantly recruiting volunteers – but apparently none of this is enough.

In June, the recruitment of convicted criminals by the Russian army was legalized. However, at that point it had long been known that at least the Wagner mercenary group had already recruited prisoners on a large scale. In particular, they are said to have served en masse as ‘cannon fodder’ in the battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which will last until the summer of 2023. Thousands died.

There are hardly any reliable figures

The Kremlin justifies the controversial practice by saying the men “pay in blood on the battlefield” for their crimes. However, Moscow is officially silent about how many prisoners have already left the prison prematurely in this way – like so many things in this war.

Almost a year ago, the non-governmental organization “Rus Sidyaschtschaya” (“Russia Behind Bars”) spoke of about 50,000 recruits recruited in prisons. But even then there were only 10,000 of them in action; the rest were killed, wounded, missing or captured in Ukraine. There are no reliable, current figures.

State media are apparently not allowed to report on crimes

The Russian power apparatus apparently wants to keep quiet about how many of the pardoned criminals will commit crimes again in Russia after returning from the combat zone. According to information from the “Meduza” portal, state media was recently instructed by the Kremlin not to report on such cases so that Russians “don’t get scared.”

But the subject can no longer be kept secret. Because the military romanticism of the supposedly reformed criminals in the Kremlin is often contrasted with a completely different reality: for example, there is a murderer from the Kirov region who was recruited by Wagner and, after returning from Ukraine, stabbed an 85-year-old man. pensioner put to death in his native village.

Or a murderer from Kemerovo who was also pardoned and who, just back from the front, murdered his friend while drunk. Or a former fighter from Novosibirsk who allegedly raped a ten-year-old girl. Not to mention the war crimes these men may have committed in Ukraine.

Huge financial costs

According to experts, we can only speculate about how serious the long-term consequences of criminals returning from the war will be for Russian society. This is also unclear because no one can yet know how many of the pardoned prisoners will survive their deployment at the front, sociologist Asmik Novikova recently told the Russian-language service of the American broadcaster ‘Radio Liberty’.

But even politicians loyal to the Kremlin believe that against this background an increase in crime is entirely conceivable. “Somewhere the crime rate could increase now,” Duma deputy Maxim Ivanov told the portal “74.ru”.

And that is not the only consequence of the war that Russian society will feel for a long time. The country also faces enormous financial costs – not only for the fighting ordered by Putin himself, but also for long-term expenses such as veterans’ pensions, survivor payments, prosthetics and other health benefits. In the coming year alone, military spending is expected to account for more than a third of Russia’s state budget of almost 37 trillion rubles (about 370 billion euros) – a record figure.