“I’m a special military operations veteran, I’m going to kill you!” Those were the words Irina heard when she was attacked by a man in Artyom, in the Russian Far East.
She was returning from outside one night when the man kicked her and hit her with his crutch. The force of the strike was so strong that the crutch broke.
When police arrived, the man showed them a document proving he was in Ukraine and claimed “nothing will happen to him” because of his service.
The attack on the Arena is just one of many attacks carried out by troops returning from Ukraine.
Verstka, an independent Russian website, estimates that at least 242 Russians have been killed by troops returning from Ukraine. Another 227 are seriously injured.
Like the man who killed Irina, many of the attackers have previous criminal convictions and were released from prison specifically to join Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The BBC estimates that the Wagner mercenary group recruited more than 48,000 prisoners to fight in Ukraine. When Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash last year, Russia’s Defense Ministry took over prison recruitment.
Sociologist Igor Edman says that these cases have seriously affected the Russian society.
“This is a very serious problem, and it could potentially get worse. All the traditional ideas of good and evil are being turned upside down,” he told the BBC.
“Those who have committed heinous crimes – murderers, rapists, carrion eaters and pedophiles – not only go to war and escape punishment, but, unprecedentedly, are hailed as heroes. going.”
There are many reasons why Russian soldiers are lucky enough to come back from war thinking they are above the law.
State media call them “heroes” and President Vladimir Putin has called them Russia’s new “aristocracy”. Conscripts from prisons had their sentences either commuted or pardoned.
It is not unheard of for released criminals to return from the war in Ukraine, re-offend and then return to the front to avoid punishment a second time.
This has frustrated some police officers. “Four years ago, I put him away for seven years,” police officer Grigory told the Novaya Gazeta website.
“And here he is again in front of me, saying: ‘Officer, you can’t do anything. Now is our time, the time of those who are bleeding in special military operations.’
Russian courts have routinely used participation in the war against Ukraine as a reason for handing down lesser sentences.
But many cases do not reach the court. Moscow has introduced a new law against “defaming the Russian armed forces”, criminalizing some ex-servicemen for fear of reporting them.
Olga Romanova, head of Russia Behind Bars, a prisoner rights NGO, says the sense of impunity is driving up crime rates.
“The main consequence of this is the difference in the public mind between crime and punishment. If you commit a crime, it is not certain that you will be punished,” she tells the BBC.
In 2023, the number of serious crimes registered in Russia increased by almost 10 percent, and the number of military personnel convicted of crimes in the first half of this year more than doubled compared to the same period a year earlier.
Sociologist Anna Kulshova says violence is becoming more acceptable in Russian society, particularly because criminals can now escape punishment by going to war.
“There is a tendency to legitimize violence. The idea that violence is a kind of norm will probably spread – violence in schools, violence in the home, violence in relationships and as a way to resolve conflicts.
“It facilitates the militarization of society, the turn towards conservatism and the romanticization of war. Violent crimes within the country are being atoned for by the violence of war.”
Igor Eidman, Olga Romanova and Anna Kuleshova spoke to the BBC from outside Russia.
