More than four times as many Russian soldiers, stationed in southern Russian regions and the Russian-annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, have so far this year been convicted of drinking alcohol than in the corresponding period last year and the year before.
It reports the independent Russian online newspaper Vjorstka.
From January to August in 2021 and 2022, respectively, 549 and 590 soldiers were convicted of drunk driving in Russian military courts. In the same period this year, 2,631 Russian soldiers have been punished for alcohol-related crimes.
– Everyone is just tired, says Major Dmitrij Avdijuk, who himself has lost his driving license for drunk driving. to Vjorstka.
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– Suffering heavy losses
The dark figures are probably even greater, believes Darja Kutsjerenko, the journalist who revealed the statistics.
– It is clear that we are only seeing the tip of an iceberg. Russia is suffering great losses in Ukraine, and it is not possible to put everyone in custody as super. Who then should have fought, says Kutsjerenko to Sweden’s national broadcaster SVT.
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The marked increase occurred after Vladimir Putin’s mobilization, says Kutcherenko.
– It has to do with the fact that the number mobilized is more, and therefore there are also more cases, she says to SVT.
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– The problem is significant
Abuse of alcohol is nothing new in the Russian military.
In his 2014 book Vodka Politics: Autocracy and the Secret History of the Russian State, Mark Lawrence Schrad, director of the Russia Program at Villanova University in the US, argues that alcohol abuse was an important, if not decisive, cause of that the Russian Empire lost the Crimean War against the Ottoman Empire.
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The same was the case in the Russo-Japanese War, which Japan won, despite being outnumbered, and Russia’s chaotic war effort during the First World War, Schrad believes.
– I don’t think it is nearly as important now, as it was during the Russo-Japanese War, or the First World War, but the problem is still significant. It’s not something you can just dismiss, the researcher and author added Business Insider in April this year.
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– Not so scary to die
There is no reason to believe that the soldiers actually fighting in Ukraine consume less alcohol than the soldiers who are part of the statistics Vjorstka has dug up.
– Everyone drinks. Even I did. Some have it under control, but some drink like crazy, says a Russian officer, who has now deserted, to SVT.
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The officer was serving on the front line in Ukraine, and was shot in combat. He was hospitalized. He then chose to desert, according to SVT. He is now wanted in Russia, and SVT has therefore chosen to anonymise him.
– When you’re drunk, it’s not so scary to die, he says.
The Russian soldiers drink alcohol primarily as a way to deal with stress, according to the officer.
– In war it is naturally difficult, so… People drink. Everyone in their own way. Some do it in moderation. Others drink like crazy, completely out of control, he says.
2023-08-26 10:20:49
#Drinking #crazy
