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1/ The number of criminal cases for desertion from the Russian army has more than tripled since 2021, according to a new analysis by Mediazona. Meanwhile, likely due to chaotic record-keeping, captured Russian soldiers and wounded men in hospital face desertion charges. ⬇️ 
2/ Mediazona reports that Russia's military courts are dealing with over 100 desertion cases a week, with 2,076 such cases in the first half of 2023 alone – twice as much as for the whole of 2022 and three times more than in 2021. The great majority involve mobiliised soldiers.
3/ In some cases, soldiers have been given show trials in front of their comrades before being given lengthy prison sentences (see thread below). In nearly 60% of cases, however, they are given suspended sentences.
https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1683382190476869633
4/ As Mediazona notes, this allows the army to "send them straight back to war. Moreover, they became more dependent on their commanding officers who could report a subordinate at any moment — and his suspended sentence would turn into an actual prison term."
5/ However, in at least some cases those being accused are actually in hospital recovering from wounds, or in captivity with the Ukrainians. Sever.Realii reports on a couple of such cases.
6/ 43-year-old Andrei, a car electrician from Kursk, was one such. He was not physically fit to serve, having an intervertebral hernia, but his protests were ignored and he was not given a medical examination before being mobilised and sent to the army.
7/ His hernia meant that he was hospitalised within a week, before even reaching his unit. He was sent back to Kursk for an operation and rehabilitation. While there, his military pay was stopped and he learned he was on the AWOL list despite having been evacuated by the army.
8/ Andrei found himself trapped in a Kafkaesque situation – he was unable to contact his unit to explain the situation, as he had never been there and had not been given its address. The Russian Ministry of Defence hotline staff refused to put him in contact with it.
9/ His commander eventually called him on his phone and told him: "You'll be treated elsewhere, I won't take you off the AWOL list until you come back." He was threatened with prosecution and a possible 10 year prison sentence.
10/ Andrei says he attempted to find his unit using its military unit number so that he could send it his medical papers but only "found some unit in Bulgaria, which had been disbanded in the 1960s."
11/ "Everyone had been formally assigned to some formations, and now, apparently, they had started to put the paperwork in order. All those who were not present on the spot were included in these AWOL lists. They didn't even look into whether you were taken out sick or not."
12/ The prosecutor's office was of no help either, only sending acknowledgements of his messages. He has gone six months without any salary. Eventually he found help on the VK social media site, where "comrades in misfortune" directed him to a personnel office in Vladimir.
13/ "My treatment is long, I don't know how it will end. My command did not inform me where I was [meant to be], and until I found the personnel office myself, the issue was not resolved. There was an investigation. I had all the papers.
14/ "Accordingly, now I have a block on initiating criminal proceedings, because there is no corpus delicti. I was actually undergoing treatment. Now they have to conduct a medical examination. I don't know what it will look like.
15/ "I will go to a unit somewhere near Vyborg to determine my fitness. And then it's back to the war. Wherever they send me, they'll send me. I'm an indentured labourer here, I don't want to go myself."
He has now been taken off the AWOL list.
He has now been taken off the AWOL list.
16/ Another man, 48-year-old Dmitry Kuznetsov from Nizhnevartovsk, was released from Ukrainian captivity in February 2023 as part of a prisoner swap. However, he found that he and a fellow former POW had been put on the AWOL list while they were in captivity.
17/ When he got back to Russia, he says, "The unit immediately told me: "Write an explanatory note, where have you been all this time?" I was a prisoner of war, bitch!
18/ As soon as the Red Cross pointed me out, and this man [Ukrainian journalist Vladimir Zolkin] posted a video with me on YouTube, I was exchanged ten days later. But two of us from the unit were still wanted [for desertion]. Then it was all taken down."
19/ His health was damaged by his poor diet in captivity: "We just ate bread and drank tea." Despite receiving a diagnosis of non-fitness, the army attempted to bring him back again. He refused when they tried to issue him "a second-hand [uniform], with blood and holes in it."
20/ The army tried to prosecute Dmitry but he was fortunate to find that the military prosecutor was sympathetic. "I sent Igor – the military prosecutor – the certificates with the diagnoses via WhatsApp. He said, "Who is your battalion commander?" I said, "So-and-so.
21/ He said: "Oh, I've got it, bro, I've got nothing more to do with you. This fool is filing [charges] for everyone, even the dead." The commandant's office called again today. Said I was wanted. They didn't even know I was in captivity.
22/ These wolves [from the military unit] are silent. I'm not hiding from anyone, they called me, I picked up the phone. I said, I have such diagnoses, my right arm doesn't work.
23/ He said: "Come here, we'll write you a referral to the medical commission, so that at least some money will come to you". And as a result, I was supposedly taken off the wanted list today." /end
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