1/ A group of Russian junior commanders have today published an appeal to the military authorities about the use of violence and extortion by their battalion commander and his deputy, as well as the theft of money from the salary cards of dead soldiers. ⬇️
2/ In a video publicised by the human rights organisation , four soldiers from the 2nd Battalion of the 506th Motorised Rifle Regiment accuse their battalion commander, Lt Col Sergei Voskoboev and his deputy, Alexander Smolyakov, of abuse of authority.Gulagu.net
3/ The men state that on the night of 24-24 August 2024, three contract soldiers (named as Samir Isaev, Marat Tulebeev, and Andrei Andrianov) were brutally beaten, and money was also extorted from Captain Pavel Malyshev and Alexei Kolupaev. Their video shows the men's injuries.
4/ According to the men, the beatings took place in the village of Snizhne at the abandoned Severnaya mine in the Donetsk region. In an interview, one of them alleges that Voskoboev and Smolyakov killed three of their own men. 
5/ says the soldiers "realized that the real enemies are not in Ukraine, but people like these two, who in fact pose a danger to Russians and even to the military themselves and who, with weapons in their hands in the occupied territories of Ukraine,…Gulagu.net
6/ …systematically, reveling in power and impunity, commit violent crimes and threaten with their connections to a certain general in the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation."
7/ Abuses of this kind are nothing new; exploitation of soldiers by their officers is a long-running Russian tradition. In his 1854 Sevastopol Sketches, Tolstoy wrote of Russian officers: "While they are in the service their main aim is the acquisition of money."
8/ As the thread below illustrates, Russian officers have frequently demanded bribes from their men for various 'services', including being allowed to take leave, avoiding combat missions and being recommended for medals. /end
https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1752419654088249555
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