The Kremlin is concerned about an increase in violent crimes by Russian soldiers returning from Vladimir Putin‘s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it has been reported.
Citing unnamed Kremlin sources, independent Russian news outlet Meduza said Putin’s first deputy chief of staff, Sergey Kiriyenko was worried that soldiers were “adapting poorly” when returning to civilian life, suggesting Russian authorities don’t fully understand risks the country might face after the war.
At a meeting this month, Kiriyenko told deputy governors that many had enlisted in the army to get out of prison and upon their return to Russia from the front, had committed crimes such as murder and rape, Meduza said.
Kiriyenko reportedly said that Russian veterans from Ukraine face a different fate to those who came back from the Soviet-Afghan war or World War Two because Russian society has seen only seen the war in Ukraine “on TV” and without the more direct experience of the war, was not prepared to “understand and accept” veterans.
Russian officials are referring to soldiers returning from Ukraine as “the new Afghans,” but there is concern they could become disillusioned with civilian life and form criminal groups.
The Kremlin fears that returning Russian soldiers will be the country’s “biggest political and social risk factor” during Putin’s presidential term as the public might react to the veterans with “fear” and even “aggression” to all military personnel, Meduza said. Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin for comment.
As Newsweek has previously reported, over the course of the war, Russia has recruited more than 100,000 convicts from penal colonies, with prisoners getting their sentences quashed in return for serving on the frontline.
But the return of prisoners to civilian life in Russia has posed other problems. Independent outlet Verstka reported in April that veterans have killed at least 107 people and seriously injured at least 100 more.
Russia’s newly appointed deputy defense minister Anna Tsivileva, a relative of Putin, said in June every fifth soldier returning from the war has post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and there is a shortage of psychologists to work with them.
In reporting the Meduza piece, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that the Kremlin “likely gave little consideration to the long-term social consequences” of the war before it invaded.
“The Kremlin already appears to be struggling to quell ongoing interethnic and interreligious conflict in Russia,” the ISW said on Friday, and that the Wagner Group armed rebellion in 2023 showed “how discontent simmering among Russian military personnel can quickly become an immediate threat to regime stability.”