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A Russian soldier who was drafted as part of President Vladimir Putin’s unpopular mobilization effort got drunk and beat his commanding officer to death aboard a military train, according to court officials.
The deadly attack took place last Friday in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia.
According to investigators, the unnamed staff sergeant was sitting in a train car reserved for members of the military when he attacked a captain who had also been called up under the draft order.
The officer was pronounced dead from his injuries at the Misyash train station. He has not been identified.
The Magnitogorsk military court ruled that the sergeant will remain in custody for two months on a charge of committing acts of violence against a commander during mobilization, which carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, according to court officials.
In September, Putin ordered the mobilization of 300,000 reservists to bolster Russia’s forces fighting in Ukraine.
Since then, there have been widespread reports of disgruntled draftees getting drunk and brawling with fellow soldiers and officers.
Hundreds of thousands of military-age Russian men fled the country to avoid being sent to the front line, with a portion of the escapees ending up in the US.
Data from US Customs and Border Protection indicated that agents have encountered more than 31,600 Russians crossing the southern border to seek asylum since the outbreak of the war in February.
In November alone, Customs officers came across more than 5,500 Russian migrants.
By comparison, for the entire fiscal year 2021, Customs logged only about 4,100 encounters with Russian asylum seekers.
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