Russian courts are facing a strange situation these days.
An investigation by the BBC’s Russian service has revealed that these courts are facing record cases of soldiers deserting the army or not returning to their units from leave.
Many soldiers who deserted the army have taken refuge with their relatives. Now these relatives are also facing the threat of lawsuits.
On March 23, 2023, in the village of Stavropol in southern Russia, a Russian youth, Dmitry Selzinenko, gave his girlfriend a lift on his motorcycle. The girl had to go to the local authority office to pay the bill.
Just six months ago, this young man was called to fight in Ukraine as part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to send as many soldiers as possible to the front.
He was supposed to return to the front by March that year.
After taking a ten-day medical leave, he did not return to his units. Now he is on Russia’s ‘wanted list’.
But on the way to the village, this young man was recognized by his classmate Andrei Sovarshnev. Sovarshnev had joined the Russian police after school.
A runaway soldier and a family tragedy
Sovrshenov informed the military police about his friend. That day, when he was waiting for his girlfriend, three people tried to arrest Selizhnenko.
Selizhnenko somehow managed to tell this to his mother and stepfather. Both of them reached the rescue in their car. But two different versions are being heard about what happened there.
According to what the police has officially said, Selizinenko’s stepfather Alexander Grachov tried to snatch the handcuffs from Sovarshnev’s hands and shouted, “Arrest me instead of Selizinenko.” It is being said that after this he threw Sovarshnev on the ground and started beating him.
While Selizinenko’s family says that Alexander Grachov was thrown on the ground and beaten. Grachov wanted to see the warrant for the arrest of his step son.
After this incident of assault, both were admitted to the hospital. But a case was registered against Grachov for attacking a policeman.
But in the midst of this whole fight, Selizinenko fled from there in his parents’ car.
Meanwhile, a heated debate started in the villagers’ chat group on social media regarding this whole matter.
Selizinenko’s family said that their son did not want to join the army. He said that no attempt was made to conduct a medical examination of Selizinenko to find out whether he was fit for the army or not. He was suffering from the corona virus, yet he was sent to the front line.
In January 2023, Selizinenko fell victim to ‘frostbite’ (body stiffening due to extreme cold). He was given leave to rest. Two days after reaching home, he underwent gastric surgery. The family members said that Dmitry Selizinenko was not fit for military service at all. The Military Medical Commission should have examined him.
But not everyone in the villagers’ chat group sympathizes with their arguments.
In response to this, Dmitry’s family made this emotional appeal while appealing to their neighbors.
It read, “Here you people are living a comfortable life in your village, but who among you will go with us to Pyatigorsk, Budyonnovsk or Rostov and see in the hospitals how many injured soldiers are lying there. ”
”Instead of looking at others through your own eyes, you should put yourself in the shoes of a mother and son. In the shoes of a mother and son who have suffered so much. Your husband and son are with you in front of you. We will pray to God that what happened to us does not happen to you.”
In March 2024, Alexander Grachov was found guilty of attacking policemen. He was fined 1.5 lakh rubles.
Dmitry Selizinenko has not yet returned to his army unit. No one knows where he is at the moment.
None of the parties involved in this case want to talk to the BBC.
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‘Our men were taken away from us’
Hundreds of kilometres from the village in the Stavropol region, on the other side of the Russian republic, in a court in Buryatia, two cases came before the judge.
There, Vitaly Petrov was standing in the dock. Petrov had left his army unit. Here too, the matter was of a fight.
Petrov’s mother-in-law, Lidia Seregorodtseva, had prevented the local police from arresting him.
Based on various court documents and evidence and statements of people familiar with the case, the BBC found out what the matter was.
For security reasons, we are not naming anyone associated with this case.
33-year-old Vitaly Petrov is a resident of Sharalde village. He has two children. He was called to Ukraine in 2022 to fight the war.
This area is one of the poorest areas of Russia. In the autumn of 2022, the highest number of soldiers were being recruited in Russia.
According to the BBC and independent Russian news outlet Mediazona Research, the number of deaths of soldiers was increasing during this time.
This was one of the periods when the number of soldiers was killed the most.
In June 2023, Petrov escaped from a military hospital.
In fact, he was sent there because he was absent without leave.
Earlier that year, he was forcibly sent to his unit.
His mother-in-law says that he is not fit for military service. He has a headache. She told the court that her son-in-law was subjected to violence in the military unit and ransom was demanded.
Army lawyers said that Petrov was making this excuse to avoid going to the front line of the army.
To avoid being forcibly sent to the front line by the army, Petrov hid in his mother-in-law’s house throughout the autumn and summer of 2023. Most of the day he would hide in the nearby forests.
There he managed with pineapple, mushrooms and various berries. At night, he would come to his in-laws’ house to sleep occasionally.
Grigory Sverdlin is associated with the NGO ‘Run to the Forest’. This NGO helps soldiers who have deserted the army to leave the country.
This NGO estimates that 30 percent of the soldiers who desert the army stay in Russia while the remaining 70 percent flee abroad.
According to Mediazona, more than 13 thousand cases of desertion and absence without leave are going on in Russian courts.
However, in December 2023, the police reached Petrov’s house to arrest him.
This case was also described in different ways. Seregorodtseva said that the police broke the door and entered the house.
He pushed them aside. This frightened her little granddaughters badly. They started searching the whole house and started breaking the floorboards with an axe.
According to court documents, Seregorodtseva said that the police could neither show their ID nor an arrest warrant.
However, the police have denied this claim. The police say that they did not search the house and did not remove anything from there.
But statements from both the family and the police revealed that Petrov was hiding in the basement. Seeing him, his two daughters ran towards him.
In court, Petrov’s family and the police have accused each other of violence. Actually, at the time of Petrov’s arrest, there was a scuffle from both sides.
He was dragged out of the house. Petrov’s younger daughters said that their father was beaten with a stengun.
But it is being said that the main investigator of this case had to be hospitalized. It is alleged that boiling water was thrown on him during a quarrel with Petrov’s family.
Both Petrov and his mother-in-law, Lidia Seregorodtseva, were sentenced in the case.
Petrov was sentenced to six years in prison, while his mother-in-law was sentenced to two years in prison.
They were also asked to pay one lakh rubles to the injured police officer who was injured in the scuffle during the arrest of their son-in-law.
A source familiar with the matter told the BBC that Petrov’s wife heaved a sigh of relief knowing that her husband was in jail. He had not been sent to the front line of the fighting.
Sources told the BBC that the ongoing war with Ukraine has now started wreaking havoc on the people living in the villages.
One of these sources said, “All the men living in the villages have been taken away. There are no men left in the village to do heavy work like looking after the cattle and preparing for the winter. One’s child is sick. And many others are scared of death. I am sorry, but at the moment only women are left in the village who are shouldering all the responsibilities in the changed circumstances.”
This source said that many local men feel that they are stuck in a ‘difficult situation’.
They are being sent to the war front without their consent. While their families in the village behind them are struggling for everything.
Seven years of imprisonment
In January 2023, Roman Yevdokimov, a resident of a village on the Russia-Mongolia border, was sent to jail for seven years for leaving his army unit.
34-year-old Yevdokimov had already been sentenced twice for theft.
In October 2022, he was sent to the front to fight as part of a campaign to recruit soldiers from across the country.
Just a month after joining the army, Yevdokimov disappeared from the unit without taking leave. During that time he had reached his home. He remained hidden in the forest for some time.
After this, the family hid him in the basement of his mother-in-law’s house. But eventually the army officers caught him and then he was sent to jail.
Despite being sentenced, Yevdokimov was not sent to jail. He was asked to go to Ukraine and fight.
He got a chance to fight for six months in the advance squad. After this, he was released as per the rules of that time (now this rule has been changed). By April 2024, he had reached his home again.
His family said that he has become a victim of trauma due to fighting on the front for six months.
He is not able to return to his old life. Now he spends most of his time in the forest. Just like he used to do earlier to avoid the military police.
Yevdokimov was recruited as a soldier from prison in 2023.
He was officially pardoned from the seven-year sentence he received for the crime of leaving the army.
But he did not have any paperwork to prove that he fought near the army and was injured during this time.
Many former soldiers recruited from prison are preparing to drag the Russian Defense Ministry to court. They are demanding recognition of their status as soldiers.
But he was hesitant to travel four hours to the nearest recruitment office to resolve the matter.
His sister told the BBC, “When I went to meet him, I saw that he was sitting drunk. He was thinking whether to sign the contract and become a soldier.”
His sister said, “I will not let him go. He is scared and does not want to leave me. He knows how much I worry about him. But he wants to join his comrades there in the front. Because some people there are on the verge of death and my brother is worried about them. He wants to pay the price of being on the front.”
A large number of such cases are coming to the court. These cases are a small part of them.
According to official records, in 2024, 800 soldiers were punished every month for being absent without leave, disobeying orders and leaving the unit.
Mediazona says that this number is double compared to last year. This number is ten times more than the number of soldiers punished before the war began.
There is no information on how many family members have been punished for helping soldiers who deserted.
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