A System Built on Brutality: Why the Russian Army’s Culture of Abuse Goes Unchecked
The Russian army carries a dark reputation for a culture of brutality, encompassing torture, extortion, and the murder of comrades, a practice known colloquially within the ranks as “annulment.” Accounts from victims’ families and investigative journalists highlight a pattern where serious crimes committed by commanders are often met with silence and official inaction.
For military experts and analysts, this brutality is not a mere flaw in the system; it is argued to be foundational to how the military currently operates. The persistence of this cruel culture is traced to a convergence of systemic failures, a breakdown of command structure, deep-seated corruption, and a grim psychological cycle of abuse.
The Vicious Cycle of Systemic Impunity
At the core of the problem is the fundamental lack of discipline and the absence of a properly structured military system, according to military expert Jan Matveyev. This deficiency serves as an incubator for impunity, making effective leadership impossible.
The failure to hold officers and soldiers accountable for atrocities—including the widely reported murders in places like Bucha and Mariupol—sends a clear, powerful signal throughout the military hierarchy: you can kill without being punished. This widespread perception of unpunishable action is seen as having fundamentally undermined whatever discipline once existed, allowing violence to intensify and become entrenched as a norm.
Corruption and the Rise of the Criminal Element
The makeup of the Russian officer corps and the rank-and-file has fundamentally shifted, contributing significantly to the current climate. Military expert Yuri Fyodorov points out that since the 1990s, the officer corps has become problematic, often retaining individuals who remain in the army simply because they “are unable to find another job.” To offset low pay, many of these officers engage in corrupt practices, such as forcing soldiers into unpaid work or extorting portions of their earnings or injury compensation. This low morale, corruption, and financial predation form a powerful incentive for internal violence.
Furthermore, the war in Ukraine has introduced new elements, including mercenaries (such as the Wagner Group) and convicted felons, who operate under a different set of values. Experts argue that to keep this volatile collection of individuals—dubbed a “whole gang”—under control, commanders have resorted to the most brutal methods. Early, notorious examples, such as the widely shared video of Wagner mercenaries executing a comrade with a sledgehammer, solidified the use of extreme violence as a tool of internal control and discipline.
The Hierarchy of Aggression: Passing Cruelty Down
Psychoanalytic observation reveals a mechanism by which this brutality sustains itself across the chain of command—the “passing on” of aggressive emotions.
Psychoanalyst Alina Putilovskaya describes a cycle where high-ranking officials maintain an external image of “superiority, invincibility, and prosperity,” while simultaneously abusing their own field commanders. These commanders may be subjected to mockery, unrealistic orders, or the withholding of vital supplies.
The resulting stress and humiliation felt by the field commanders—described as “very difficult feelings”—are then projected onto their subordinates. The soldiers at the bottom fear becoming targets of this aggression, and the resulting acts of torture (like being thrown into a pit or being forced to “hug a tree” for days) and “annulments” become the default method of exerting coercion and maintaining a terrified obedience.
Coercion, Not Unity, as the Foundation
In a functioning military, a shared sense of mission and emotional bonds hold a community together, even in the crucible of war. However, in the Russian army as analyzed by experts, that sense of shared purpose is largely absent.
Matveyev notes that most Russian soldiers do not understand what they are fighting for and are “well aware that there is a serious, heinous war crime going on.” With the loss of any emotional bond or unifying mission, coercion gains the upper hand.
The army leadership is described as being uninterested in building long-term relationships because they view people as expendable resources. The frequent use of killings and torture becomes a brutal method of exerting control and intimidation. Fyodorov summarizes this grim reality by asserting that, in effect, the “functioning of the army is based on impunity and on abusing soldiers as a resource, as slaves.”
In this system, a soldier can be killed for reasons as trivial as disobedience, alcohol consumption, a disciplinary violation, or a refusal to hand over earnings—and the commanding officer has the power to simply declare the victim missing or killed in action, thereby ensuring the cycle of brutality remains tragically and entirely unchecked.
About The Author
