Father and son from Kabarda–Balkaria convicted for evading military service

A father and his son from Kabarda–Balkaria have been convicted and imprisoned for evading military service for more than five months.

According to Caucasian Knot, the Nalchik Garrison Military Court convicted Khachim Borsov and his son Charim Borsov on Tuesday on charges of abandoning their unit or place of service during mobilisation.

The news outlet reported that the pair served in the same unit and had left its deployment point without permission in August 2024. They appeared ten days apart at the military investigation department in February. Both Borsovs admitted their guilt and ‘expressed regret for what they had done’.

According to Caucasian Knot, the father, Khachim Borsov, was conditionally released from imprisonment in exchange for serving in the military in the summer of 2020, where he was serving time for committing a ‘deliberate grave crime’.

Russia has been recruiting convicted criminals to serve in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine — a practice first introduced by the Wagner Group, a formerly privately owned military company founded by the Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin.

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The demise of Wagner boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin and the diminishing role of mercenaries in Ukraine has done little to assuage fears inside the North Caucasus of the return of thousands of mercenaries formerly convicted of robbery, rape, and murder. In April, a 38-year-old resident of Tskhinvali (Tskhinval), South Ossetia, was stabbed to death in the streets. Soslan Valiyev, known locally as ‘Tsugri’, was known to have developmental disabilities and was generally loved by his community, with cur

OC MediaElizaveta Chukharova

The court gave the father a partially reduced sentence of six years and 15 days in a maximum security penal colony, while Charim Borsov was handed a five-year prison sentence.

According to Caucasian Knot, at least 243 soldiers from Kabarda–Balkaria have been officially recognised as killed in action in Ukraine as of May.

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In the Russian Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, a region with historic ties to Ukraine, the invasion of Ukraine has been met with uneasiness from some, mass desertion by soldiers, legal challenges by those dismissed from the armed forces, and fear in the families of those sent to the front. When Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in the early hours of 24 February, armed forces had been gathering on the borders for almost a year, establishing bases, moving military units, and conducting train

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