1/ An "Organised Thieves' Den" that has taken over Russia's army in Ukraine is systematically exploiting the war for profit, caring nothing for Russia's ultimate success or failure, says Russian journalist Sergey Komkov. ⬇️ 
2/ Here's part 1 of Komkov's exposé of how convicts recruited by the army have, in his assessment, effectively taken it over and are exploiting it for personal gain.
https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/2044113373793521985
3/ Komkov complains that professional soldiers are unable to tackle the "criminal scum" (which he refers to by the acronym "OVM") who have taken over the lower ranks in the 'Special Military Operation' (SVO):
4/ "Our combat commanders in the SVO zone are currently in a situation where they can't take any action against the obviously criminal elements who are not only corrupting our army from within but are actually acting in the interests of our enemies on the other side.
5/ "Real officers won't be filing reports against these kingpins with criminal nicknames. And things could get to the point where the commanders will simply shoot all these representatives of the OVM on the spot!
6/ "Because the bosses of the OVM themselves have long since realised that they can make a killing here, in the SVO. And the only ones who can stop them are honest and decent officers.
7/ "That's why these officers are receiving death threats from crime bosses holed up in dugouts with bottles of vodka and bags of drugs.
8/ "And it's at the behest of these crime bosses that the OVM submits all sorts of complaints to the relevant investigative bodies about the alleged torture and abuse of soldiers.
9/ "And the investigators, as strange as it may seem, are quite willing to accept all this stuff and nonsense. Apparently hoping to gain prestige and another rank or award from such "deals"...
10/ "[T]he decision to recruit former prisoners, as well as those currently serving sentences for particularly dangerous criminal offenses, to participate in the SVO was not just a purely tactical mistake, but also a serious political and social error on the part…
11/ …of our country's leadership. And we will have to deal with the consequences of this error for a very long time. Moreover, it is entirely possible that the repercussions of this genuine provocation against the Russian State could reverberate for decades to come.
12/ "Under no circumstances should any criminals have been sent to participate in such a complex special military operation in Ukraine!
13/ "Especially those convicted of particularly serious crimes, such as murder, robbery, weapons manufacturing and distribution, inciting ethnic and religious hatred, rape, fraud, and causing grievous bodily harm.
14/ "But, of course, the particular danger was initially posed by former and amnestied murderers.
"However, it seems someone "at the top" decided that killers would be in high demand in this particular SVO. And most likely, American standards were used as a model.
"However, it seems someone "at the top" decided that killers would be in high demand in this particular SVO. And most likely, American standards were used as a model.
15/ "After all, a significant portion of American mercenaries, as a rule, always consist of hardened professional killers, completely devoid of all normal human qualities.
16/ "So, almost from the very beginning of the SVO, we embarked on the same path when deciding whether to include former murderers and rapists in combat units. However, we overlooked one very important detail.
17/ "While in American mercenary forces, any violence within the unit itself is immediately punished very harshly, including the death penalty, here, with our overly liberal laws and regulations,…
18/ …any violent act can be committed within the military unit itself without any real punishment. And this is quite clearly evident today in our military units in the SVO zone, where the murder of one's fellow soldiers has practically become the norm."
19/ Koskov gives an example from 2023 of a regiment in which several ex-convicts began a drunken brawl, leading to one of them picking up an assault rifle and threatening a company commander, a captain, who had reprimanded him.
20/ The captain was himself a man who had previously been dismissed from his job with the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for "systematic failure to fulfill his official duties."
21/ He ordered a convict who had been imprisoned for murder to "deal with" the drunken man, which the convict did by shooting the drunkard dead on the spot. This, of course, implicated the captain in a murder and made a cover-up necessary:
22/ Koskov writes: "And, naturally, this same prisoner, given the call sign (or, more accurately, "nickname") "Grenade," could now do whatever he pleased in this "captain's" company. And he took full advantage of this."
23/ "Consequently, in August 2025, he was finally charged with bribery as an intermediary. And then the murder case came to light."
Rather than being imprisoned, though, Grenade was simply held in the regiment's guardhouse, from where he soon escaped. Koskov continues:
Rather than being imprisoned, though, Grenade was simply held in the regiment's guardhouse, from where he soon escaped. Koskov continues:
24/ "When Grenade brazenly abandoned his combat unit and ran off to see his mistress in Smolensk, the regiment commander's patience ran out. He dispatched several soldiers to retrieve the apparent deserter, instructing them to deliver the fugitive to his unit in handcuffs.
25/ "Grenade was, of course, found and brought to regimental headquarters. Where the regiment commander, who, I believe, had every right to do so (as was always the custom in Russia), simply laid the insolent fellow on the ground and gave him a hearty thrashing with a cable cord.
26/ "And when he started yelling and cursing, they also ripped off his pants and beat his ass with a stick!"
To Koskov's evident disgust, this appears to have led to the commander being investigated for human rights abuses while, once again, the killer went free. /end
To Koskov's evident disgust, this appears to have led to the commander being investigated for human rights abuses while, once again, the killer went free. /end
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