UK intelligence analyzes impact of ex-convicts’ return from front on Russian crime rise

The UK intelligence service reports.

For example, the head of the State Duma for Family Protection, Paternity, Maternity and Childhood Nina Ostanina emphasized the need to keep former convicts under constant supervision of law enforcement agencies, as they are not socialized, and society must be protected from such people.

At the same time, State Duma deputy Maksim Ivanov warned that crime could increase after former convicts return from the war.

Instead, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, Aleksey Zhuravlev, said that convicts who fought in Ukraine should not be allowed to return to Russia until the war with Ukraine is won.

The intelligence service added that on January 1, 2023, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office stopped publishing official crime statistics, probably partly due to a possible increase in violent crimes committed by former convicts who returned from Ukraine after participating in hostilities.

According to the independent Russian media outlet Verstka, as of April 2024, at least 107 Russians had been killed and another 100 seriously wounded by soldiers returning from the front.

UK intelligence says that the recruitment of convicts into the Russian Armed Forces and the consequences for Russian communities after their release is a practice and a risk the Russian government is willing to take to continue the war in Ukraine.

• At least 57 colonies are planned to be closed in the Russian Federation, as prison premises are empty due to the mobilization of convicts.