Pardoned for serving in Ukraine, they return to crime
Viktor Savvinov had already been imprisoned several times for various crimes — including robbery, auto theft and assault — when he murdered a female drinking companion during a quarrel in 2020, stabbing her in the chest with four knives.
A court in Russia’s Siberian region of Yakutia sentenced him to 11 years in a maximum-security prison. So, when recruiters from the private Wagner mercenary group offered him freedom and a clean slate if he deployed to fight in Ukraine, Savvinov, a morgue orderly, seized the opportunity.
By February, Savvinov had completed his service and was back in his native village of Kutana. That month, on Defenders of the Fatherland Day, he was, residents said, staggering drunk around the snowy streets, complaining loudly that villagers showed him insufficient respect as a veteran. The next night, he murdered two of them, according to a law enforcement report, striking a male drinking buddy dead with a metal crowbar before killing his own estranged aunt, who lived next door, by axing her in the head, and then torching her wooden house.
Russia’s practice of recruiting convicts has been the backbone of its success in Ukraine, providing an overwhelming manpower advantage in the war. But it is backfiring in tragic ways as inmates pardoned for serving in Ukraine return to Russia and commit new crimes.
Overall numbers on recidivist crimes are hard to establish because the Russian government restricts the release of any public information that puts the war in a bad light. A survey of Russian court records by independent media outlet Verstka found that at least 190 criminal cases were initiated against pardoned Wagner Group recruits in 2023. That included 20 cases of murder or attempted murder as well as rape, robbery and drug-related crimes, among others.
Still, the Kremlin appears to be doubling down on the policy of recruiting inmates. On March 23, President Vladimir Putin signed a new law meant to formalize the process.
Before, the criteria for pardons were opaque, and Putin pardoned convicts who had fought in Ukraine by signing decrees that were never made public. The new law established a long list of eligible crimes that were explicitly added into Russia’s criminal code, including murder, robbery and some rapes. Earning pardons is now a matter of law, not presidential decree, but convicts let out of prison to fight can get one only after their military commanders approve.
Crimes not eligible include terrorism, espionage or treason, and some sex crimes involving minors, among others.
“Nobody used to lock their doors in the village at night, but now they lock them with a key, even during the day,” said a resident of Kutana, a Siberian village of 1,000 people, declining in an interview to use her name out of fear that Savvinov might win another pardon if he was convicted and volunteered again to fight in Ukraine.
“Normal life” was gone, she added, noting that the aunt he killed had once been named a “teacher of the year” and awarded a prize from the Kremlin.
Similar experiences have scarred other cities and towns.
In Chita, near the border with Mongolia, a Ukraine veteran was sentenced last month to 14 years in prison for strangling a 22-yearold prostitute to death with his bare hands. In 2020, he was sentenced to 14 years for strangling and dismembering an 18-year-old girl.