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'They're just meat': Russia deploys punishment battalions in echo of Stalin (www.reuters.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml
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Drunk recruits, insubordinate soldiers and convicts are among hundreds of military and civilian offenders pressed into Russian penal units known as "Storm-Z" squads and sent to the frontlines in Ukraine this year. Few live to tell their tale.

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[+] -49 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Criminals say they're unhappy being criminals.

At least Russia's criminal population isn't dominated by ethnic minorities.

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    At least Russia’s criminal population isn’t dominated by ethnic minorities.

    I wonder if that's entirely true. I strongly suspect they're overrepresented. Historically the Soviets deported a lot of non-Russian minorities to penal colonies. Same thing now, where a lot of Ukrainians are being deported to the far east.

    Russians are also quite frequently virulently racist. People from the Caucusus, central-Asia, etc. Anti-semitism too.

    Of course, now they're disproportionately sending those minorities to die in Ukraine, so there's that.

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  • [+] -17 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Historically the Soviets deported a lot of non-Russian minorities to penal colonies.

    They did do that to a number of Axis powers fascists, because they were fascists.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The first deportations of ethnic minorities started in the 1920s.

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  • [+] -10 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    ??? The rise of fascism to serious prominence, and the existence of 'Axis' powers, predates World War II, try World War I for example.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    The Russian "justice" system has a conviction rate of 99.3%. It's safe to say they're giving large swathes of completely innocent people the death penalty here - people who are someone's father, child, or friend.

    Is that the system you see as exemplary for the west? Are these the Russian family values I'm always hearing so much about?

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago

    It's at a similar level as Japan.

    I'm generalizing here, but Asian cultures don't like being wrong so it's far more common for a case to never go to trial than for it to go to trial and end up with an acquittal.

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