Viktor Savinov killed a female drinking buddy by stabbing her in the chest with four knives during an argument in 2020, and had already been jailed several times for various crimes including robbery, car theft and assault.
A court in Russia's Siberian region of Yakutia sentenced him to 11 years in a maximum-security prison. So when a recruiter from the private Wagner mercenary group offered him freedom and a clean slate to fight in Ukraine, Savinov, a morgue employee, seized the opportunity.
By February, Savvinov had completed his mission and returned to his home village of Kutana. According to residents, on Defender of the Fatherland Day that month, he was seen wandering drunkenly through the snow-covered streets, complaining loudly that villagers were not showing him enough respect as a military veteran. It is said that he had leaked the information. The next night, the man killed two of them, beating his drinking buddy to death with a metal crowbar and then using an ax to the head of his estranged aunt, who lived next door, according to a law enforcement report. He was stabbed and then set on fire. wooden house.
Russia's prisoner recruitment practices were fundamental to its success in Ukraine, giving it an overwhelming manpower advantage in the war. But it has backfired in a tragic way, with prisoners pardoned from serving in Ukraine returning to Russia and committing new crimes.
The total number of repeat offenders is difficult to determine because the Russian government restricts the release of information that undermines the war. An investigation into Russian court records by the independent media outlet Verstka found that at least 190 criminal cases were filed against Wagner recruits who were pardoned in 2023. The charges include 20 cases of murder, attempted murder, rape, robbery and drug-related crimes. others.
Still, the Kremlin appears to be tightening its prisoner recruitment policies. On March 23, President Vladimir V. Putin signed a new law aimed at formalizing this process.
Previously, the criteria for pardons were unclear, and Putin pardoned prisoners who fought in Ukraine by signing a decree that was never made public. The new law established a long list of eligible crimes that were explicitly added to Russia's criminal code, including murder, robbery, and some forms of rape. Obtaining a pardon is now a matter of law rather than a presidential decree, but prisoners released from prison for fighting can only obtain a pardon after approval from military commanders.
Crimes not covered include terrorism, espionage, treason, and some sex crimes involving minors.
“Before, no one locked the village doors at night, but now they lock them even during the day,” said a resident of Kutana, a Siberian village of 1,000 people, in an interview. He said he declined to give his name. This is due to fears that Savinov may be granted another pardon if he is convicted and volunteers to fight in Ukraine again.
There is no longer a “normal life,” she added, noting that the aunt he murdered was once named “teacher of the year” and received an award from the Kremlin.
Similar experiences have left scars in other cities and towns.
Last month, a Ukrainian veteran was sentenced to 14 years in prison for strangling a 22-year-old prostitute to death with his bare hands in Chita, near the Mongolian border. In 2020, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for strangling and decapitating an 18-year-old girl.
In the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, a former Wagner mercenary who served 15 years for theft and fraud was sentenced in February to 17 years in prison for raping two schoolgirls, ages 10 and 12.
Last spring, one night near the southwestern city of Krasnodar, a young father, Kirill Chubuko, the owner of a party business, and one of his employees stopped to repair a tire that had burst on a dark road. They encountered three highway robbers who forced them to withdraw about $2,000 from a bank before they were stabbed to death, according to law enforcement reports. The gang leader was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2016 for preying on motorists, but was released to serve his sentence in Ukraine.
In 2017, Sergei Rudenko was sentenced to 10 years in prison for strangling his girlfriend with a belt. He was released when he signed with Wagner to fight in Ukraine.
In April 2023, 34-year-old Rudenko looked for an apartment in Rostov-on-Don, in southwestern Russia. After an argument with a real estate agent over her proposed rent, the man strangled her with a cloth thong and stabbed her in the neck, according to a law enforcement report. The district court sentenced Rudenko to more than 11 years in prison.
The victim's name was not named in local reports, and several local residents contacted by phone said they knew nothing about the incident.
Details of these crimes were derived from numerous interviews, field investigation reports, local news articles, and court records. Relatives and friends of the murder victims, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, feared the killers would win a new pardon and come after them. Those interviewed also feared that authorities could bring charges under the laws of war for defaming the military, including publicizing soldiers' past crimes.
The Wagner Group began recruiting convicts in August 2022, promising a presidential pardon in exchange for a six-month contract. The group said it had recruited more than 50,000 prisoners before disbanding last year following a failed revolt against the Kremlin.
Many of these men have died, some are still fighting, and an estimated 15,000 former prisoners have returned home, said Olga Romanova, director of Russia Behind Birds, an NGO that deals with prison issues. It is said that he did.
“So many prisoners escaped again and it became a big problem,” she says. The crime appears to belie the official narrative that the war is being fought to make Russia safer and that veterans constitute a new elite, she added.
Crimes committed by veterans, Wagner group or not, often go unreported. The national media has covered only a few sensational cases. “This is a story about invisible violence,” says Kirill Chitaev, a Russian sociologist specializing in criminology at Yale University. “This is a big problem for society, but society doesn't recognize it.”
Russian commanders frequently send untrained prisoners to join the Russian army as cannon fodder. Having survived the harsh conditions in the penal colony and the bloody war that followed, they return to the streets without any rehabilitation.
Experts say many of them return to their communities with a certain arrogance. They believe their service has rehabilitated them and usually have money to spend. Their basic monthly salary from Wagner was about $2,000, a small fortune in most of Russia.
Additionally, law enforcement officers are often intimidated by ex-prisoners' new status, Romanova said.
Those pardoned after committing particularly shocking crimes and then serving in Ukraine include a serial killer from Sakhalin known for his cannibalism. A member of a Satanist sect convicted of ritual murder. And the man who brutally tortured his ex-girlfriend for hours and murdered her.
Mr. Putin last year downplayed the problem of pardoned prisoners committing new crimes. “This is inevitable,” the president said. “But the negative impact is minimal.” He confirmed issuing presidential pardons, but the Kremlin refused to reveal the names of the recipients.
Relatives of previous victims and other local residents often vocally criticize the release of criminals. In Novosibirsk, the killer of a used car salesman has been pardoned and is now driving a taxi despite efforts to have him fired.
Some lawyers have accused prosecutors of being slow to respond to cases against veterans in the hopes that local protests will subside.
“This is a new level of illegality,” said a lawyer for the widow of Mr. Chubuko, who was killed along with an employee by a highway gang. Lawyers have repeatedly asked prosecutors to provide a copy of the pardon, but they have been refused. “They keep telling us it's a state secret,” he said. “We're fighting the investigation more than the defendant.”
Late on the night of the murder, Chubuko called his wife and told her not to stay awake because some men he had met on the street would help her change a flat tire. The next morning, her husband had not yet come home and she did not answer her cell phone.
However, his wife contacted Tatiana Mostiko, 19, who worked for her husband. Mostico said a strange voice told her that Chubuko was not home, but her wife later found out that Chubuko had already been killed. According to the investigative report, Mostico was driven to various ATMs and immediately killed.
The widow said she felt sick to her stomach after attending the arraignment of the three suspects. (According to local reports, the other two had petty criminal records and there was no indication that either had ever worked in Ukraine.)
“It was clear they had no regrets,” she said. She added that her husband once said it was not normal to recruit soldiers from prison.
“These people are in prison,” she said. “I'm scared that they're among us. When my kids and I walk in the park, they might be walking there too. There's something written on their foreheads that says they're criminals. It’s not like we’re doing it.”
Oleg Matznev Contributed to the report.