Aleksey Bugaev, once a promising Russian footballer, is now fighting in the Ukraine war after being sentenced to prison for drug distribution. He exemplifies the Russian government's controversial policy of recruiting convicted criminals into the military in exchange for pardons.
Once one of the most talented defenders in Russia , Bugaev opted to fight in war rather than serve long prison sentencestarted recruiting convicted criminals from prisons. A person can be immediately pardoned by the president just for agreeing to fight – and it does not matter how dangerous they are.and then hailed as national heroes by authorities. There are also criminals who have committed lesser crimes who are ready to gamble on their lives for freedom.
“He was always problematic,” Shevchenko said. “We did everything in our power to fight for him. We fined him, had a lot of conversations with him and his parents, sent him to the reserves and eventually loaned him out to Tomsk who controlled him at every step.” That could have been a source of pride and a sign of good things to come, but Bugaev did not take advantage. Upon returning to Moscow, he started to miss Torpedo training sessions and, by the end of 2004, the club lost patience and decided to sell the player while they could.
In 2014, four years after his retirement, Bugaev gave a bizarre interview to Sovetsky Sport, first offering the journalist “to drink something”. He had a removal van and had entered a recycling business. “I don’t regret anything,” he said. Yet life did not go according to his plans.
Russia Ukraine War Military Recruitment Convicted Criminals Pardons
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