Even on a sunny spring Sunday, the glittering exhibition in Moscow devoted to Russia’s war against neighbouring Ukraine is bustling with activity.
Groups of children, families and senior citizens move past military hardware, reconstructed battlefield scenes and raw footage from the front. Inside the pavilion at Moscow’s VDNKh exhibition grounds, soldiers are portrayed as heroes.
This and similar propaganda exhibitions across the country are designed to foster acceptance of returning soldiers – even as experts warn of the challenges they may bring home.
As hundreds of thousands of men with experience of violence and post-traumatic stress disorders return to civilian life, they are meeting residents for whom death and destruction are far away.
Social tensions are inevitable, says Moscow journalist Andrei Kolesniko during an online conference titled “Homecoming with Horror”, organised by the German Sakharov Society. Kolesniko writes for the Kremlin-critical platform newtimes.ru.
The returnees are used to comparatively high earnings from their war service and to privileges. Russia’s labour market often offers neither, experts say.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose war is now in its fifth year, also knows this and is demanding special attention for the war returnees.
By early April, there had been 1,500 days of war. There is still advertising everywhere in Moscow and in many places, such as the metro, recruiters for voluntary service at the front can be found.
The question of how soldiers can find their way back to a normal life after the war has long been present.
“We must help them acquire new skills, knowledge and abilities,” Putin said recently at an event.
He has instructed officials to draw up recommendations for the reintegration of war returnees by July 1. They need social support and further training, he stresses.
Rising crime and conflict
Russian society partly supports the war and partly endures it. But those who stayed at home have a sense that the return of hundreds of thousands of men could become a problem, despite all the propaganda about proud defenders of the fatherland.
The independent polling institute Levada Center found last year that three out of five respondents view veterans with respect. Asked what things would look like after the war ends, 44% – mostly supporters of the government – say there would be more security and social peace, while 39% fear an increase in conflicts and crime.
The negative expectation is based on experience.
When the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989 after being defeated, army veterans returned to a poor and disintegrating country and many became criminals.
In the 1990s, ordinary Russians did their best to steer clear of such thugs with links to organised crime.
The difference is that in Afghanistan and later against the breakaway Russian Republic of Chechnya, conscripts fought.
Putin is waging his current war against Ukraine primarily with contract soldiers. The signing bonus for recruitment, the monthly pay and compensation in the event of injury or death are high.
For many families in Russia’s provinces, it pays off if a father, brother or son fights.
Criminals deployed
In addition, tens of thousands of prisoners were recruited. Even the most violent offenders were granted amnesty if they volunteered for service.
It is still unexplored how the length of wartime service affects returnees, says journalist Ivan Filippov, who reviews internal discussions among Russian supporters of the war.
Neither Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan nor US soldiers in Vietnam fought for such a long time.
It is “only a matter of time” before the pardoned convicts reoffend after returning home, a 2025 study by the police academy in Yekaterinburg said. There are repeatedly headlines in Russia about brutal murders committed by former front-line fighters.
According to an overview by the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, since 2022 around 7,000 former participants in the war against Ukraine and 1,000 still active participants have been convicted.
Of those, 900 received sentences for grievous bodily harm, manslaughter or murder.
In 52 cases, deadly violence struck someone in the family: their own wife or girlfriend, their mother, sister or children.
Crime spillover
In most proceedings, however, the cases involve minor bodily harm, drugs, theft or traffic offences. The experts also found that verdicts against veterans are often more lenient than those against civilians. Participation in the war against Ukraine is considered a mitigating circumstance.
The crimes spill over into society and shape the awareness of many people.
In a Ural city of more than a million people, journalist Olesya notes that women often opt for more expensive taxis, as cheaper rides are frequently driven by war veterans – who are widely seen as unpredictable and potentially violent.
People do not want them as neighbours either, Olesya reports. Estate agents advise landlords not to tell prospective tenants if a front-line returnee lives in the building, as that would push down the rent for a flat.
But even if the Russian population has a different impression, there have not yet been any major spikes in the crime statistics.
The number of returning war veterans is too small for that to happen, Russian sociologist Kirill Titayev writes on the portal Istoriya i Fakty.
However, he cautions that once the war in Ukraine ends, Russia could face a spike in crime. – dpa
