In Russia, "SVO heroes" killed and maimed hundreds of compatriots, - media
Date: 2024-09-26 Author: Кирило Загоруйко Categories: WORLD
During the two and a half years of full-scale war in Ukraine, Russian soldiers who returned from the front killed at least 242 people in Russia itself, and caused at least 227 more serious injuries. This was reported by the Russian opposition project "Verstka".
It is noted that most of these crimes were committed by former ex-prisoners recruited from prisons and already returned after short-term service at the front. The victims are mainly relatives and acquaintances of the occupiers, mainly women. Among the victims are representatives of 80 regions of the Russian Federation and the unrecognized South Ossetia.
As Verstka found out, of the 125 pardoned and conditionally released war veterans who committed murder again, 54 had previous convictions for similar crimes, and another 3 for rape.
"The most "common" crime remains the intentional infliction of serious bodily harm. Returned war veterans committed at least 220 such crimes, as a result of which 64 people died and another 158 were injured, including to disability," the publication writes.
For example, 15 people died at the hands of "SVO veterans" in the Kostroma region, 13 of whom were victims of the fire in the "Polygon" club, which was started by serviceman Stanislav Ionkin. In the Moscow region (including Moscow) - 11 victims, the same number in the Rostov region, 10 in the Krasnodar region.
As an example, "Verstka" cites the story of former prisoner Vladimir Tolokonnikov, who in the spring of 2023 came to Kabardino-Balkaria with his stepson to meet with the commander. On the way, he met a group of unfamiliar men and women - and invited them to watch his videos, in which he "communicated normally with children, taught them patriotism." Tolokonnikov filmed the videos "on the front lines in Ukraine."
The group refused to communicate with the drunk soldier, and then he and his stepson burst into the strangers' guest house and shot them with a pistol. One man died, another was wounded. For this, the killer was sent to a maximum security penal colony for 17 years. At the trial, his commander said that he twice came to the "SVO" as a volunteer and twice evaded direct combat on the front lines, for which he was kicked out of the military unit "in disgrace."
The publication draws attention to the fact that the sentences for the already handed down sentences for former convicts range from 6 to 14 years in a maximum security penal colony, while for other military personnel, they range from 7 to 10 years in a maximum security penal colony. In cases where war participants were tried for brutal murders or the murder of several people under Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the sentences were up to life imprisonment. For example, former prisoner Viktor Budin received 19 years in a maximum security penal colony for the murder of his retired neighbors.
Another example. War participant Vasily Kim killed his "biological mother" during an argument. The man was raised in an orphanage and a foster family, but wanted to find his real family. He met his mother for the first time before the war, and after returning home to Yakutia, he decided to visit her. During the party, the drunk Kim remembered that his mother had abandoned him, his brother, and their 5 sisters. First, he hit her on the head more than ten times with his hands, then stabbed her several times, and then hacked her to death with an axe (while planning to hit her with the axe seven times - for the number of abandoned children). The court sentenced Kim to 12 years in a maximum security penal colony.
Another ex-prisoner, Vyacheslav Savelyev from Tatarstan, killed his nephew, who stood up for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. During a party, Savelyev told about his service in Ukraine, but his nephew did not approve of killing people. To which his uncle replied that "these were not people, but animals," but the relative continued to "defend the Ukrainian military." A quarrel broke out and Savelyev stabbed his opponent, for which he received 7.5 years in prison.
"Wagnerite" Sergei Gomzhin brutally killed his own uncle because of a conflict "about his service in the SVO" during a party. The drunk ex-prisoner inflicted a total of more than fifty blows to the victim's head and body, hit him on the head with a log, and then stabbed him twice in the neck. For this, the Krasnodar court sent Gomzhin to a maximum security prison for 9 years and 10 months," the journalists said.
According to Verstka, war veterans receive suspended sentences if their victims survive. So, in addition to the two hundred dead, there are the same number of people who were seriously injured. Most of these Russians suffered at the hands of ex-prisoners: 124 injured out of 227. All of them received serious injuries, including disability. For example, "Wagnerite" Igor Gorbunov from the Altai Territory brutally beat his common-law wife, who wanted "intimacy" and woke him up. The girl received a craniocerebral injury, a fracture and displacement of the skull bones, a brain contusion, and Gorbunov received a 4-year suspended sentence.
As noted in the publication, the number of crimes is probably greater than Verstka managed to discover. Courts do not publish all decisions on cases they have considered, and their decisions often do not include information about "Putin's pardon" of ex-prisoners or the defendant's participation in the "SVO". In addition, there are cases when, after the publication of sentences for war participants, documents are edited, deleting information about state awards or the entire text of the sentence.
