Against the background of the war against Ukraine, Russian troops suffer from lack of personnel; soldiers need to rotate out of combat. As early as June 2022, a recruitment campaign for the war in Ukraine was held in many Russian penal colonies. Prisoners were offered a six-month contract as assault troopers and a presidential pardon. Later, on March 9, 2024, the Duma, or Russian Parliament, in the third and final reading of the bill, passed a law allowing people who signed these military service contracts to be exempt from criminal liability. The consequences of such a law could be disastrous. The war in Ukraine is now seen by some prisoners as an effective way to evade justice.
Indeed, in March 2023, Russian State Duma Deputy Chairman of the Defense Committee, Andrei Kartapolov, replying to a journalist's question about neo-Nazis serving in the ranks of the Russian Armed Forces assured the reporter that "they have already removed their tattoos and are no longer giving Nazi salutes (...) If they are carrying out tasks as part of a RAS grouping, it means they have already been reformed."
This report focuses on the case of one group of neo-Nazis evading prosecution in Russia.
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On May 20, 2024, the Russian state-owned "RIA Novosti Sport" media, which focuses on sports, published a very short news article on a criminal case against a football gang in the Russian city of Tula. The news outlet reported that the Tula prosecutor's office had filed a declaratory judgment suit demanding that a court recognize the football firm as an extremist group, and ban it in Russia. The court hearing was set for June 5, 2024. Several other Russian media outlets briefly explained that the reason for the court action was that the group promoted Nazi-like propaganda and extremist ideology. Yet the trial will be held in absentia, as reportedly the entire group has joined the Russian Armed Forces and gone to war in Ukraine.
Almost a month before the news about the trial appeared in the media, on March 12, a popular VKontakte group published an appeal from the group, which read: "[the group] are stopping their OF-activities [i.e., football hooliganism], and are leaving [Tula] to join the ranks of the Reconnaissance Unit 106. We wish everyone success and good luck in their endeavors! Glory to Russia!”
Background
The group, created in 2022, consists mainly of fans of the Tula football club, Arsenal. The group consists of at least 10 members who incite and participate in large fights and football hooliganism. One Telegram channel stated that, in 2022, one of the firm's leaders was convicted of an armed attack, motivated by ethnic hatred, and another member, in Autumn 2023, was detained for dissemination of extremist materials and of neo-Nazi imagery.
The majority of the group’s members seem to share extremist, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist views. A Telegram channel confirmed that the group supports neo-Nazi ideology; the channel also provided a list of offenses committed by the group. According to the channel, members of the group committed nine administrative offenses "of an extremist nature," (mostly involving the demonstration of neo-Nazi symbols, such as "Black Sun," runes "Odal" and "Algiz," in public places).
In their VK message in which they assert they are stopping their football violence, the group claimed that they have joined the Reconnaissance Unit 106. This refers to a reconnaissance detachment of the 106th Airborne Division, stationed in Naro-Fominsk (Moscow Oblast). This detachment consists predominately of far-right football hooligans, and numbers more than 500 servicemen. In addition, according to media reports, there are a number of ex-Wagnerites within the unit.
As the hostilities in Ukraine continue, and the need for servicemen becomes more urgent, Russian authorities will likely continue their policy of recruiting criminals to the war, expanding the legal framework for such a campaign. As seen in one case, members of some groups are able to flee even before a court hearing and the verdict. Consequently, it may lead not only to a decreased effectiveness of law enforcement activities and crime prevention, but also to a conflict of interest between officers tasked with crime prevention and persecution, and authorities engaged in military recruitment.
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