After the start of partial mobilization in September 2022, Russia increased penalties for certain crimes against military service (Chapter 33 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), including for disobeying the order of the commander and refusing to participate in hostilities. According to estimates by Mediazona*, at least 25 criminal cases have been opened in the country for these crimes since then, and convictions have already been handed down for at least three of them. More details in the The Eastern Herald material.
Failure to fulfill an order
A package of amendments to the Criminal Code, including tougher penalties for failure to comply with an order, State Duma contributed September 20, 2022 – the day before Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization in the country. The changes were approved in an accelerated manner, already on September 24 they entered into force.
In the article on non-execution of an order (332 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), in particular, there was a clause on non-execution of an order of a given superior during martial law or in times of war. Depending on the severity of the consequences, it is punishable by a sentence of two to ten years in prison.
The opening of the first criminal case under the updated article became known at the end of October. Pavel Chikov, the head of the human rights group Agora**, said the accused “did not comply with the order given in accordance with established procedure to go on a business trip to participate in the hostilities, thereby refusing to participate in hostilities.” No further details of the case were released.
At the end of March 2023, Mediazona*, after studying criminal cases against servicemen, calculated that 25 criminal cases had been opened in Russia under article 332 of the criminal code, mainly in Kamchatka (six), Rostov-on -Don (four) and Crimea (three).
In total, according to the publication, the garrison courts received more than 500 cases under hardened articles after the mobilization began.
Penalties for failure to comply with an order
The media covered three verdicts in cases related to the non-compliance with the order. In December 2022, the military court of the Kursk garrison sentenced to three years in prison the mobilized Yuri Degtyarev and Aleksey Selivanov, who refused to “depart to places of special tasks to fill the lack of units” by order of the head of unit.
Degtyarev and Selivanov were defiantly arrested at a parade ground in the Belgorod region. A video with footage of the detention was widely broadcast on Telegram channels.
According to the investigation, the soldiers caused significant harm to service interests, undermined military discipline and command authority, and also impeded unit staffing and increased the workload of other service members.
The defense of Degtyarev and Selivanov requested a commutation of sentence, since the convicts pleaded guilty, repented and expressed their desire to participate in the military operation, but the court upheld the verdict.
At the end of 2022, a court in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky sentenced serviceman Aleksey Breusov to one year and eight months in a colony.
According to the investigators, at the beginning of October, the man, “aware of the mobilization announced in the Russian Federation”, refused to take part in the hostilities, “that is to say to leave, in accordance with the order of the commander of the military unit, at the NVO Zone.
At the Pacific Navy Military Court, where Breusov unsuccessfully tried to challenge the verdict, declared that the mitigating circumstance in the conviction was the appearance of a confession, and the aggravating circumstance was the violation during the period of mobilization.
In February 2023, the military garrison court in Sevastopol book sentence to cousins - senior adjutant of the Belogorsk garrison of the Amur region Kotov VA and private Kotov EV
According to the court, they agreed in advance to disobey the order if it came. In September, the Kotovs refused to comply with the order of the deputy commander of the brigade for military-political work “to leave to carry out tasks of maintaining occupied lines” in the Kherson region.
The military pleaded guilty in part. Senior Warrant Officer Kotov received three years and six months in a colony of the general regime, and an ordinary officer received three years and four months in a colony.
*registered by the Ministry of Justice in the register of foreign agents
** In 2014, a human rights organization called Agora was entered into the register of NPOs-foreign agents, and in 2016 it was liquidated by a court decision. Currently, the International Human Rights Group “Agora” operates without constituting a legal entity
