Putin's plan to recruit ex-convicts for Ukraine war backfires after Russians murdered
Putin’s plan to use prisoners as soldiers is part of a “broader, intense drive by the Russian military to bolster its numbers"
Reuters
Convicts released from prison by Vladimir Putin to fight on the frontline are now returning home and causing havoc.
In total 32,000 criminals recruited by the Wagner Group, a Russian state-funded private military company, were all sent home this summer.
Putin’s plan to use prisoners as soldiers is part of a “broader, intense drive by the Russian military to bolster its numbers, while attempting to avoid implementing new mandatory mobilisation, which would be very unpopular,” according to the UK’s Ministry of Defence.
However, some of the recently pardoned criminals have been leaving a trail of crime and killing in their wake.
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It's emerged that two criminals, Maxim Bochkarev and Igor Sofonow, went on a killing spree in the village of Derevyannoe in Karelia, northwest Russia last month.
They first murdered a father and son, breaking into their home and stabbing Artyom and Vladimir Tereschenko to death.
The ex-convicts then set the property on fire before making their next attack.
Artyom’s children managed to escape and raised the alarm.
The pair of criminals went on to murder four more people in a house nearby, before setting that property ablaze too.
Bochkarev and Sofonow met whilst serving time at a prison in St Petersburg.
Sofonow, who was still had three more years to go of a sentence for theft, robbery and attempted murder, was recruited to the front line by Russia’s Ministry of Defence.
The practice was started by former Wagner boss Yevgeny Priogoshin and later adopted by the Russian military.
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Irina Zhamoidina, sister of Artyom and daughter of Vladimir, said Sofonow should not have released back to society before his sentence was over.
"I believe that anyone who was in prison, even if he went to war, then he should be sent back when he was done for such serious crimes," she said.
"They should not live among us because cases like this do happen."
Bochkarev and Sofonow are not the only two pardoned prisoners who have committed crimes since they left the front line.
There have been numerous cases of murder, sexual assault and child molestation from offenders
Reuters
In the southern city of Krasnodar, a Wagner ex-prisoner is on trial for murdering two people who were travelling home from work.
There have also been numerous cases of murder, sexual assault and child molestation from offenders.
The policy which allows serving criminals to fight on the front line and then return home is already having a detrimental effect on everyday Russian citizens.
Convicts who return to society have little rehabilitation support and are likely traumatised by the horrors they’ve seen at war.
Alexandra Sofonova, Igor's sister, believes the state should give psychological support to men like her brother,
"He served his duty, he was wounded - he's a man and they're proud of things like this. And then he came back and turned out to be unnecessary, he couldn't even get a passport, he goes to glue wallpaper. Maybe something clicked in his head."