In the first four months of 2023, Russian military courts heard 1,053 felony cases under the Criminal Code’s article against “unauthorized abandonment of a military unit,” which can carry a punishment of up to 10 years in prison. That’s more cases than in the entirety of 2022 (when courts heard 1,001 such cases), according to the independent outlet Mediazona, which took its data from the official websites of Russia’s military courts.
The majority of cases (992) that made it to court in the first part of 2023 were opened after Russia ramped up punishments for “crimes against military service” (which include insubordination, resisting a superior, abandoning one’s unit, desertion, and others) and began its “partial mobilization” campaign.
According to data from the Judicial Department at Russia’s Supreme Court, 1,083 people were convicted of “crimes against military service” in 2021, while the number rose to 1,379 in 2022.
Of particular interest:
At the same time, a large portion of “unauthorized abandonment” cases end in probation sentences. This allows the authorities to send defendants back to war rather than to prison. Putin’s mobilization order explicitly bans the dismissal of convicted soldiers who aren’t given jail time.
This is reminiscent of the practice during the Vietnam War of sentencing U.S. military personnel to "six, six, and no kick," -- i.e., a spell in the brig but no punitive discharge, meaning . . . back to the field.
Also of interest is the availability of online information about Russian military prosecutions and sentences. How do Russian military court websites compare with those of the U.S.? If any reader is in a position to compare them, please comment.
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