Why Does the Russian Army's Brutal Culture Go Unchecked?

Tuesday, November 18, 2025

The Russian army has a reputation for murdering, torturing and treating its own recruits terribly. How does such behavior become acceptable in a military?

Posted by LampLighter at 01:32 PM | 15 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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Russian army redeploys forces near Pokrovsk amid reported reserve shortage, partisans say. The newly arrived troops are reportedly being sent straight into assault operations, sometimes without even being formally registered.

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-- The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) Nov 12, 2025 at 7:43 AM

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... They killed my child," Tatjana Bykova laments in a video message. She uses the term "annulled" to describe how her son, Andrej, was killed by Russian military commanders. She names them and says she hates them.

First, they blackmailed Andrej, demanding half of the compensation he received for an injury. When he refused to give them the money and bought a car instead, they demanded that he give them the car. He was killed for refusing to hand over the car.

Bykova filed a complaint with the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and the public prosecutor's office, but nothing happened. Andrej Bykov was simply declared missing. "I was told that he was beaten to death. He is lying in a forest near Galizynovka [a village in the Donetsk Oblast in Ukraine -- editor's note]," Bykova told the independent Russian media outlet Verstka.

In October 2025, the investigative news website launched a project to highlight widespread torture and so-called "annulment" -- a colloquial term for the murder of comrades in the Russian army. ...

#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-11-17 10:09 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 2

... and another thanks to the local PBS stations for broadcasting DW's nightly news.

#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-11-17 10:10 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

It's their culture.

Think how Trump regards service members, particularly veterans, then make it systemic and deeply rooted.

#3 | Posted by horstngraben at 2025-11-17 10:15 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 4

@#3 ... then make it systemic and deeply rooted. ...

Pres Trump is working towards making his views systemic and deeply rooted.

#4 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-11-17 10:29 PM | Reply

The Russian army has a reputation for murdering, torturing and treating its own recruits terribly.

IAMRUNT admires the orc army.

#5 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2025-11-18 12:08 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Talk about projection.

#6 | Posted by fresno500 at 2025-11-18 10:09 AM | Reply

What's Pootie got to lose when N. Korea sends him more of theirs?

#7 | Posted by Yodagirl at 2025-11-18 05:56 PM | Reply

I've read conspicuous alcohol consumption is yet another checked box on the voluminouslist of "colorful facets" of the Russian culture. Mean drunks gotta mean drunk, eh?

#8 | Posted by dutch46 at 2025-11-19 12:03 AM | Reply

Because the bald midget is a murderous socipathic dictator and they have nukes.

#9 | Posted by Nixon at 2025-11-19 08:56 AM | Reply

The conflict in Ukraine has revealed that without being able to saber-rattle their nuclear detergent, Rusian military prowess--despite their numerical hegemony in men and material--currently is being held in a perpetual stalemate by a mob of plucky volunteers and drone enthusiasts.

#10 | Posted by dutch46 at 2025-11-19 11:30 AM | Reply

Checked by who?
P.S. Large numbers of Russian front line troops here are conscripted "undesirables" being used as cannon fodder. Suits multiple purposes, those losses.

#11 | Posted by morris at 2025-11-19 12:40 PM | Reply

Short of a Russian military coup, who's going to do anything about it?

#12 | Posted by Whatsleft at 2025-11-19 02:12 PM | Reply

A man I knew served in the US Army in Europe during WW2, rising in rank through combat service from private to captain. He was a hard bitten guy with the proverbial tender heart, a real student of people. He first encountered the Russians at the Elbe River, which would make it late April 1945. They came down towards the river not as an army but a mob, he recalled, a horde burdened with loot from their passage through Germany. Later, his unit was stationed near Russian outfits. One day the Americans captured four or five Soviet troops inside their zone stealing chickens, called the Soviet h.q. and told them to come and pick up their guys. A Soviet officer drove over, put the offenders at attention, shouted out a few words, unholstered his pistol and shot each one of them in the head. That was s.o.p. at the time; it remains an inherent part of the Russian Army's dubious ethos.

#13 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-11-19 03:26 PM | Reply

Russia may be in Europe, but it is not in the West. Not ideologically speaking.
Which is kind of funny since Communism is about as bougie a Western idea as there could ever be.

#14 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-11-19 03:35 PM | Reply

The funniest thing about Russian Alpha Males is their love of Al Sharpton's favorite Adidas Track Suits.

#15 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-11-19 03:39 PM | Reply