- The fighting in Ukraine has given back some of the ex-detainees recruited by Russia their spoils.
- These men gain freedom after surviving their military service.
- According to the New York Times, around 15,000 former detainees have returned to Russia.
Former detainees who fought for Russia in Ukraine return home with new wealth and swagger, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Olga Romanova, who runs a Russian NGO specializing in prisoner issues, told the Times that about 15,000 former detainees had returned to Russia after fighting in Ukraine.
Returning men, who are released without any rehabilitation, often commit crimes once they return home. Kirill Titaev, a Russian sociologist at Yale University, told the Times that the wave of “invisible violence” was a “big problem for society.”
Experts interviewed by The Times said some former prisoners gained confidence after their time in Ukraine and viewed their wartime service as a form of rehabilitation.
The fighting in Ukraine also left them financially well off, as they received a base monthly salary of about $2,000 from the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary organization, according to the Times.
It is also more than double the average salary of a Russian worker, who earns about $756 a month, the Russian statistical agency said in a statement. investigation released in October.
Romanova told the Times that even local police officers are afraid of returning convicts and their new veteran status.
Russia resorting to the war of attrition, however, saw the country by continually relying on its prison population to strengthen its military personnel.
Wagner first began recruiting inmates to bolster his ranks, offering convicts full pardons if they survived a six-month stay in Ukraine. The practice was then adopted by the Russian Ministry of Defense in 2023.
Sending prisoners to the battlefield, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in May, would enable Russia to “to avoid implementing a new compulsory mobilization, which would be very unpopular with the Russian public.“
This decision was not without controversy, however. In November, Russia media reported that two prisoners convicted of murdering and eating their victims had been released after the fighting in Ukraine.
But even Russia’s prison population is a limited resource. A local official told lawmakers last month that some prisons would be closed due to “a significant and one-off reduction in the number of convicts“.
Russia’s need to recruit more troops could put additional pressure on its economy.
In addition to treating crippling sanctions from the West, Russia had to face severe labor shortages. THE Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences said in December that the Russian economy had a shortage of around 5 million workers.
“Unemployment stands at 3% and in some regions it is even lower. This means that there are practically no workers left in the economy,” said the governor of the Central Bank of Russia. Elvira Nabioullina told lawmakers in November. “The staff situation is really very serious.”
Representatives of the Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside normal business hours.
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