Murders, torture, car accidents. How the “war against Ukraine instead of prison” scheme works in Russia

He killed a woman and flayed her, shot three people, beat a woman and left her on the side of the road to die. For none of these crimes, the perpetrators ended up in prison - they received suspended sentences or were not prosecuted at all. For one reason - the defendants signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense and were immediately released.  

 

Tatyana (name changed) arrived at the rented apartment of contract worker Mikhail Kazantsev in Kyzyl on November 24, 2024 – a few days after he returned from the front. They had been drinking, and in the evening Kazantsev began accusing her of treason.

He locked the apartment, forced Tatyana to strip and kneel. Then he beat her with a crutch, broke her arm, urinated on her and threw her out onto the balcony. It was -20 degrees outside. According to the verdict, his victim spent at least an hour on the balcony. The windows were covered with bars, she could not get out, no one heard her screams.

The next day, Kazantsev poured boiling water from a kettle on her and burned her eyelid with a cigarette. Later that day, he forced her to squat down and began throwing empty glass bottles at her, then demanded that she sit on one of them. Fearing further violence, Tatjana agreed. In the evening, Kazantsev strangled her with a charger wire until she snapped, after which he shaved her head and threw her out onto the balcony again.

The next day, he beat his victim with a belt with a metal buckle, pushed her off a chair, causing her to hit her head and shot her with a toy gun and hit her in the head with the handle. On the morning of November 29, 2024, Kazantsev went to the store, forgetting to lock the door. Tatiana, who was naked in the apartment all those days, put on his clothes and ran away. She reached the nearest kindergarten, whose employees called a taxi so she could get to the police.

A medical examination revealed a head injury, extensive second-degree burns, stab wounds on the hands and a fractured ulna. In court, Kazantsev pleaded not guilty. He claimed that Tatjana was in his apartment voluntarily and did not want to leave, and that the boiling water allegedly accidentally fell on her.

Court documents from Tiva and Khakassia show that Kazantsev was prosecuted several times, including for beating a man to death. In 2023, the court sentenced him to seven years in prison for assault and attempted murder. However, he signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense and went to war against Ukraine. In September 2025, Kazantsev was found guilty of unlawful deprivation of liberty, torture with particular cruelty, inflicting severe injuries dangerous to health and several episodes of causing harm of medium severity.

- He was sentenced to 12 years. But nothing prevents him from concluding a new contract with the Ministry of Defense and going to the "combat zone" again, says human rights activist Alexei Tupolev. – The state, as before, leaves this option.

 

 

In October 2025, in the town of Berezovsky, Sverdlovsk Oblast, 50-year-old Rafis Kuzin killed his wife Olga. According to the investigation, the reason was a quarrel over domestic issues. The accused himself went to the police, but instead of a trial and a proper sentence, he ended up at large - he signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense and went to war.

– He lived with Olga for five years. All five years he beat her to death. He did not work anywhere. She worked in several places, even as a cleaner. You can’t earn much by washing floors, she was falling off her feet. That’s why she was indignant that he sat at home all day, did not cook anything, although she asked him to fry a chicken. She returned after two shifts and was indignant, of course, that he sat all day instead of helping. She and he, by the way, also started drinking, - says Kuzin’s cousin Alina. - He must have gone completely crazy from drinking - he took a knife and stabbed Olga several times. In the statement of the Investigative Committee, they wrote that he "tried to skin her". No way! Mostrum removed the skin from Olga's head and upper body! And then he tried to dismember the body. He couldn't and buried the corpse in the yard of the house. I saw her before the funeral, it was a nightmare, they refused to put make-up on her and immediately decided that she would still have to be buried in a closed coffin".

According to our interlocutors, on December 25, Kuzin was sent to Ukraine, probably to an assault unit.

- We understand that the death rate there is high. But something else scares us - they let them go home. During this time, they manage to commit new crimes. We appealed to the police and the Investigative Committee, asking them not to give him a chance to avoid trial. Unsuccessfully - says the interlocutor of the Sibir.Reali project.

The Investigative Committee in the Sverdlovsk Region did not respond to Radio Liberty's request. The Berezovo City Court previously informed the local media that it had not received any materials on the extension of Kuzin's detention.

Comments from local residents echo the same sentiment - today it is easier for murderers to escape punishment than for ordinary people to get protection.

"It turns out that I can easily kill a person, but if you go to 'SVO' (that's how Russia calls the war against Ukraine - ed.), then everything is forgiven you, it's all strange".

"Now even murderers will receive a salary and will give more than a million for signing, while we started paying 42 rubles for the trip".

"He killed, went to 'SVO' - he became both a hero and a millionaire at the same time, and if he died - a hero".  

 

 

On October 14, 2025, Tuva resident Salčakmaa Sambuu walked from the village of Barlik to the village of Kuzil-Mazhalik. After some time, passing police officers found her on the side of the road with a serious head injury. Salcakmaa died without waking up. Everything indicated that she had been hit by a car, but the culprit could not be identified for more than two months.

- Salchakmaa raised her children alone. She raised five children! Sometimes she begged the authorities to give her coal, which they promised to families with many children. In general, it was not easy for her. Now imagine the call to her children in the middle of the night: your mother has been run over and left for dead. After all, she could have been saved if they had called an ambulance right away. But in the end, no one had anything to do with her murder except the children. Her eldest son and daughter had to search for the criminal themselves. The children spoke to locals who may have seen something and learned that a group of young people in Priora were supposed to pass by in a car that evening to meet their mother. The driver, they say, was one of the sons of the leader of the cheerleader of the village of Barlik" - says an acquaintance of the deceased Oržan.

The names were not mentioned in the regional media, but the newsroom claims that it is Margarita Monguš, who has been at the head of the municipality since October 2024.

- I don't know which of her sons is detained, so I can't confirm her name. And they don't write it anywhere. And she [head of the cheer] is also the mother of many children - seven children, two of whom are already grown up, - says Aidis, originally from Barlik, who moved to Kizil a few years ago. - And about 10 years ago, she also received "social coal", which was distributed to people with many children. But then everyone just laughed at the fact that a woman in a mink fur coat with a luxurious collar was receiving "help for the poor". Now she is the head and owner of the largest farm, which supplies meat and milk not only to Tuva. And now there is something else surprisingly.

According to Oržan, after the information was handed over to the police, the official's son was detained. But, despite the fact that he admitted to the accident, the investigator of the Barun-Hemčitski Police Control Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to impose a preventive measure on him.

- He hid from the police for two months. He didn't come to the police station by himself - they took him into custody. The investigator did not even demand that he be placed in isolation - he sat at home until the trial. And now it turns out that there won't even be a trial - he said he was ready to sign the contract, and he was already seen walking around Kizil freely. Salčakma's daughter found out about it by accident - acquaintances who work in the military registration office already saw him at the medical commission on December 16, - says Oržan.

Social network users from the Barun-Hemčitski district write that the local police have always "covered up" corrupt officials, but now the "cover up" has reached a new level:

"We got used to it, people investigate crimes themselves cases, find the culprits and pass the information on to the police."

 

"In the Barun-Khemchitsky district, entire police forces are covering up corrupt officials. If the children had not found the culprit, they would not have been able to find him." In September, it became known that another driver, guilty of a fatal traffic accident, had gone to war. A resident of Tuva without a driver's license, five times convicted of traffic violations, hit an 11-year-old boy on the road near a school in the Kyzyl district on September 17. The child got out of the bus and ended up on the road, because the bus did not stop at the bus stop. It is known that the 28-year-old driver had previously been detained twice for driving without a driver's license and refusing to undergo a medical examination while intoxicated. The child died in hospital. When journalists announced that the driver had been released without a sentence and had gone to war, the mother of the deceased child recorded an appeal demanding that the culprits be punished. The video shows that even after the child's death, lighting, traffic lights and pedestrian crossings have not been installed along the road.

 

 

In December 2025, Marat Kumukov, who was sentenced to 13 years for murder, was released to go to war.

"For this purpose, the Supreme Court of Karachay-Cherkessia changed the verdict it had for the murder of three people: according to the investigation, Kumukov was a member of the Storozhev gang in the 2000s and participated in the murder of people from another group.

A lawyer by training, Kumukov was three times elected to the parliament of Karachay-Cherkessia from the United Russia party. In 2022, he signed his first contract with the Ministry of Defense, was wounded in the war against Ukraine and received the Order of Courage.

"As a patriot and father of many children, who feels responsibility for the future that awaits the younger generation, our colleague believed that he had no right to remain an outside observer," the press service of the parliament of Karachay-Cherkessia wrote about Kumukov in 2022.

In 2022, Kumukov returned home and was arrested on charges of murdering at least three people. At that time, criminal cases against the Storozhovsky gang had been under investigation for several years.

According to the investigation, Kumukov, armed with a pistol with a silencer, broke into the house of one of the members of another gang. He was followed by accomplices with pistols and machine guns. Together they shot three people. In court, Kumukov pleaded not guilty to murder, stating that he was "just at the scene of the crime," but allegedly "did not kill people, did not shoot at anyone."

Immediately after the guilty verdict was announced, Kumukov said that he wanted to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense. Therefore, the head of the military service selection point filed a petition with the appeal court to release Kumukov from the sentence. The Supreme Court of the KCR replaced the actual prison sentence with a suspended sentence and entrusted the command of the military unit with "control over the behavior of the convict."

 

According to new amendments to the Criminal Code, approved by the State Duma of the Russian Federation in 2024, judges can replace part of the unserved sentence with a suspended sentence if the convict “concluded a contract during the mobilization period or in wartime.”

“The Storozhevsky gang ruled Karachay-Cherkessia for almost 15 years,” says local lawyer Yuri Smagin. “They ‘covered’ all large and medium-sized enterprises, including the then largest greenhouse complex in Europe, ‘Pivdenny.’ Those who refused to pay were kidnapped, tortured and killed. Ali Bachayev from the village of Storozhivskaya became the leader of the gang after 2003. But he was not the leader from the very beginning – he started as Rasul Bolurov’s right-hand man. When, on Rasul’s orders, the leaders of two competing gangs – Sarityuzky (Ishaq Temirliyev) and Dzhegutinsky (Rasul Atabiyev) – were “eliminated,” only “Storozevsky” remained. It is said that they “fell” under the security forces at about the same time. This explains the fact that Kumukov, being Aliyev’s subordinate, did not interest the law enforcement agencies for so long – on the contrary, he became a deputy.” And he lasted surprisingly long – three terms (!) – even Ali was not so lucky – he is now 53 years old, and for the last three years he has been on the international wanted list. He has been wanted in Russia since 2013.

 

According to the interlocutor of the Sibir.Reali project, Kumukov reported innocent facts about the Storozhevsky gang to the investigation - for example, that they recruited there primarily residents of the Zelenchuk district from the ranks of "athletes" who were engaged in sections.

- The arrests began after 10 years of Ali's "reign", after the murder of a major local businessman Nauruz Cherkasov. First, four members of the Storozhevsky gang were detained, and several more were handed over. They received sentences from eight to 20 years. But they did not touch Kumukov for a long time. And not because he was "little known". This is not the case - for example, Ali's closest associate, Artur Tebuev: he was elected a deputy of the republican parliament. Now he is also on the international wanted list. But then rumors persistently spread that Both he and Kumuk's close ties to the security forces helped them become members of parliament - or rather, they both bowed to them. As we can see, this did not help them for the rest of their lives. But now there are other "bows" - bows to the Ministry of Defense.

 

Russian soldiers have killed and maimed at least 1,016 people since returning from the war in Ukraine, according to a Verstka study from early December 2025.

According to the publication, returning war veterans are responsible for the deaths of 551 people. The military committed 240 murders, resulting in the deaths of 274 people. In addition, 163 people died after receiving serious bodily injuries, and another 78 - as a result of accidents committed by "veterans".

Other crimes committed by the military, which resulted in the deaths of people, include causing death by negligence, incitement to drug use and murders exceeding the limits of necessary self-defense.

More than half of the murders were committed by former prisoners. Of the 281 war veterans accused of murder, at least 142 had previously served time in prison for similar crimes.

In addition, the military returning from the front wounded and injured at least 465 people.

On the account of the "SVO veterans" - 318 cases of infliction of serious life-threatening injuries to health, "Verstka" calculated. As a result, 323 people were injured. Also recorded were 41 attempted murders, the victims of which were 48 people. In 56 traffic accidents, 80 people were injured.

Most of the cases found about new crimes of the military are family conflicts, half of which mention alcohol and drugs.

In almost every criminal case - 90 percent of cases - judges cited the defendants' participation in the war against Ukraine as a mitigating circumstance.