Russian Soldiers Face Harsh Penalties for Refusing to Fight

Vladimir Putin gives a speech to various parts of the defense in the Kremlin on June 27, 2023. Photo: SPUTNIK/KREMLIN / POOL / EPA / NTB

In just one year, Russian military courts have received almost 3,000 cases about soldiers who do not want to fight or who do not show up.

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Putin toughened the penalties. But more than half receive conditional sentences – to be sent straight back to the front.

Now a woman has been convicted for the first time. Pregnant Madina Kabalojeva has been sentenced to six years in a penal colony by the military court in Vladikavkaz for failing to appear after Vladimir Putin declared “partial mobilization”, reports Kommersant, DOHA and other Russian media.

Can result in ten years in prison

The sentence is postponed until 2032, when her eldest child will be 14.

According to the woman, before the trial she received a recommendation from military doctors to leave service, because she is pregnant and also has a five-year-old child – but the prosecution did not accept the arguments.

Her lawyer Roman Rabadanov believes the court’s verdict is illegal and will appeal, writes Kommersant.

A review that VG has done of Russian local media and Telegram channels shows that very many people are prosecuted. If the person is convicted of desertion, it can lead to up to ten years in prison.

– Without defending them, I would say that there are many heartbreaking cases, says head of department Inna Sangadzhieva in the Helsinki Committee to VG.

On 30 August, two soldiers from Russia’s “Far East” were sentenced to two years and eight months in prison each. Vitalij Dzunkovskij and Ivan Tarasov were sentenced for refusing orders, an organization also reports lawyers practicing martial law on Telegram. They blamed lack of training and fear for life and health – but were still convicted. Nikolai Shablukov from Pskov was recently sentenced to two years in prison because he went to his mother’s funeral. The military claimed that they had not been notified, reports Dosha.In Chelyabinsk in Siberia, a man was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison for deserting, also according to Doxa.An unnamed man received two years and three months in a penal camp because he refused to go to fight in Ukraine, because he himself grew up there and did not want to kill his friends there, reports Astra on Telegram.In Novocherkassk, a man identified as Aleksej K. has been sentenced to five years and three months of suspended imprisonment for absenting himself from the military, the court-martial lawyers report. The soldier Dmitry Naryshkin has fled the front three times. He was sentenced in July to 12 years in a penal colony, the court-martial lawyers write. Russian soldiers walk in front of an S-300 missile system. The picture was taken in connection with a patriotic demonstration in the Moscow area on 30 June 2023. Photo: SERGEI ILNITSKY / EPA / NTB

– Many are poor – and the salary in the army is good. Therefore, they were tempted to sign a contract, says Sangadzhieva.

– Others are wise. They thought they were going to an exercise – and suddenly found themselves in the war zone in Ukraine, says the human rights expert.

Toughens the penalties

In September 2022, immediately after Vladimir Putin had ordered mobilization, the penalties were greatly increased. What had previously given a maximum of five years in prison suddenly had a penalty of ten years. New sections were also added such that “unauthorised surrender” could result in a sentence of up to ten years in prison.

– Since the tightening of military laws in September 2022, Russian military courts have received 2,930 cases against contract soldiers, conscripts and mobilized, reports Dosha.

– In about 75 per cent of the cases, the courts have already given judgment.

There are three times as many people being sentenced now as before the war, according to the report Mediazona.

– It is not surprising that Russian men do not want to die at the front, states Peter Viggo Jakobsen at the Danish Defense Academy to VG.

– When you see that they bring convicts out of prison to be soldiers, it also shows how far Russia is willing to go to find soldiers – and that there are recruitment problems.

RECRUITMENT: “Our profession is to defend the fatherland” says this recruitment van for the military. Photo: MAXIM SHIPENKOV / EPA / NTB

Inna Sangadzhieva says that the Russian authorities are at a crossroads:

– On the one hand, they have a great need to recruit soldiers – on the other hand, they must not scare people from enlisting in the army.

Therefore, the punishments must not be too severe either.

– Vladimir Putin needs cannon fodder. Therefore, he must have more soldiers. That is most important.

Divided into four groups

Sangadzhieva divides the soldiers into four groups: 1. the professional military, 2. contract soldiers, 3. conscripts and 4. mercenaries from the Wagner group and other private companies.

The then Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin recruited in the prisons. According to Sangadzhieva, it may have been about tens of thousands of prisoners – who were promised freedom after six months as soldiers in Ukraine.

Defense Minister Sergej Sjojgu in a meeting with senior officers in August. Photo: RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE/HANDOUT HANDOUT / EPA / NTB

– Now they are coming back to Russia. Many of them are murderers, rapists. Almost daily there are news of violence, theft … These former convicts and soldiers, now free men, terrorize whole villages.

– What does it do?

– The funny thing is that this is difficult for the police. Because there are also many laws that forbid slandering those who are or have been in the war. When these come home and commit something criminal, there is a conflict. This is a ticking time bomb, says Inna Sangadzhieva.

– Even the legal system does not know how to deal with it.

It may also be one of the reasons why many of the soldiers receive suspended sentences – that is, that they do not have to go to prison.

Russian soldiers guard a power plant on Russian-occupied territory in the Kherson region. Photo: AP / NTB

It allows the soldiers to be sent straight back to their military units, including the war in Ukraine, after Putin’s mobilization states that you are dismissed from the army only if you receive an unconditional sentence.

The mobilization of 300,000 Russian troops was announced by Vladimir Putin in a televised address on 21 September 2022.

Since then, the number of cases in the military courts has only increased every month. In July 2023, there were 522, more than ever before, figures from sibreal.org. Most cases are in the Moscow region.

Mediazonaan independent Russian medium, has found that in the first half of 2023 there were twice as many cases as in all of 2022.

Until September 2022, you could avoid military service by stating that you had pacifist views. Now that is no longer possible.

– It was a possible way out for those who did not want to fight, says Sergej Krivenko of the Russian human rights group “Citizens.Army.Rights.” to sibreal.org.

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Published: 22.09.23 at 02:24

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2023-09-22 00:24:46
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