In 2024, courts in Russia reviewed and issued verdicts on 2227 criminal cases of unauthorized absence. "Sever.Realii"* found that over the past year, an additional 168 cases were initiated against absentees for other crimes of varying severity: these include murders, intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm, sexual crimes, thefts, robberies, fraud, drug offenses, drunk driving, and traffic violations, and even hostage-taking.
Servicemen who went AWOL committed at least four murders and became defendants in four cases of threat of murder. For example, in September 2024, a Tula court sentenced contract soldier Alexander Rodin to 10 years in a high-security colony. In March of the same year, he came to the military service selection point and signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense. However, he never reached the military unit, and for about a month, Rodin hid in the apartment of an acquaintance, as stated in the verdict. Later, during a feast, he quarreled with him, beat him, and strangled him with a belt. It turned out that Rodin had been repeatedly convicted before, and all data on when Rodin was sentenced for his previous crimes and when he was released was removed from the court's decision, but given the chronology, it is logical to assume that he did not serve his last term because he signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense again.
Another serviceman, Sergey Shadrin, went AWOL and was later guilty of sexual violence against a child under 14 years old. In September 2022, he left the military unit in the Zaporozhye region of Ukraine and went home. Six months later, he voluntarily returned to the unit. The investigation found that Shadrin raped his daughter. He was sentenced to 23 years in a colony, with the court finding mitigating circumstances for the serviceman: participation in the war, positive characteristics from military command, and the fact that he has other children who were not subjected to violence.
One of the "record holders" for the number of criminal cases among those who went AWOL was 26-year-old Denis Drushlyakov from Maykop, "Sever.Realii" found. In addition to AWOL, criminal cases were initiated against him under eleven other articles of the Criminal Code. He was accused of insulting a government official, rape, violent sexual acts, violation of privacy, fraud, unlawful access to computer information, robbery, and other crimes.
A serviceman from Bratsk, Evgeny Oznobikhin, left the unit for 2.5 months, and upon returning, took a hostage by blocking the door in one of the offices of the military unit. Drunk, Oznobikhin threatened the locked woman with a knife and demanded from the command that he be provided with a car, an AK-47 rifle, and allowed to leave the unit. He was sentenced to seven years in a colony, despite having been repeatedly convicted before.
As "Sever.Realii" writes, last year verdicts were also issued on 166 cases of desertion, with at least three of the convicted also committing murder.
* Recognized in Russia as a "foreign agent" and "undesirable" organization.