Ukraine War Day #395: Prigozhin On Wagnerite Recidivism Rates

Dear Readers:

Enough time has passed that some sociological analysis can be done on criminal recidivism rates among the Wagner forces. Although, to be sure, it is probably not a scientific study when the Wagner chief Evgeny Prigozhin does it himself, and just throws out some numbers. But still, it’s something.

This piece reports on some statements coming out of Prigozhin’s press service. Here are some facts offered by the chief in regard to criminals serving in the Special Military Operation (SMO):

More than 5,000 former criminals, having served out their military contract with the Wagner organization in the SMO, have returned to civilian life with a full pardon. Amongst these, the criminal recidivism rate over the past month is 0.31%.

Which is 10-20 times lower than the normal recidivism rate among these types of criminals, according to Prigozhin. Prigozhin went on to say that crime in general, in Russia, has gone down 10 times since the start of the war. [yay!?]

The Bicycle Thief

One example of a successful recidivist: Ben Akhmed Sherif, a native of Tunisia, arrived in Russia around 10 years ago and settled in St. Petersburg where, as his photo shows, he engaged in fire-eating. Back in 2021 he was sentenced to one and half years in a labor colony, his crime being attempted robbery. After barely serving a year, Ben was pardoned by President Putin himself, in July 2022, and went marching off to war, as a Wagnerite. For about half a year he served bravely and received a medal of Valor. Then was discharged with a handsome payout of 1.1 million rubles [around $14,000 American dollars].

Ben Akhmed Sherif

Sadly, within just a month or so after his discharge, Ben was detained again, this time for stealing two bicycles, a “Forward” and a “Skill Bike”, worth 18,000 and 15,000 rubles respectively [roughly around $200 bucks]. It is unclear from the narrative if the African native stole these bikes after returning from the SMO, or if (more likely) these were two older crimes that had just come to light and never been accounted for (указывая на непогашенную судимость). Either way, the Prosecution wanted to throw the book at him and send him back to the colony.

Russia is one of those European nations which follow the Code Napoleon (as opposed to English Common Law), what this means in practice is that the prosecution usually gets what it wants.

However, in this case, Ben’s attorney was apparently able to mount a successful defense. The judges took into account the following factors: Ben had lived in Russia for 10 years and has ties to the community, including a family (2 children from a previous marriage). The court also took into account Ben’s previous pardon (by Putin himself), and his valorous service in the SMO. In the end the court decided to leave Ben his freedom. Ben plans to apply for Russian citizenship.