Member-only story

Russian Soldiers Spend Years Raping, Murdering, and Stealing — Then What?

They return to a society that doesn’t care and pretends the crimes never happened

B Kean
7 min readAug 18, 2023
Courtesy of the Animal

To put it mildly, the young man in the photo above is in a bit of a pickle. Protesting Russia’s law that LGBT citizens could be imprisoned for “propagandizing and perverting” children, the unfortunate kid took his protest to St. Petersburg’s cultural and historical heart: The Palace Square behind the famous Winter Palace.

The day was August 2nd. Most Russians recognize this date. It is an absolute nightmare for Russian cities’ parks and central squares. On this day, the magnetic energy from the moon turns thousands and thousands of passively violent and barely civilized men into raging animals. August 2nd is Airborne Day (Den’ Desantnikov) in Russia.

Wearing their blue-striped sleeveless t-shirts and green berets, the army of Mr. Hydes is up bright and early, and even before noon, many of them are already drunk but still standing. They are in the violent phase of their day. A few hours from being passed out on the benches around fountains but inebriated enough that the shouting, bear-hugging, and “Ros-si-ya” chanting mob is still coherent enough to replace law and order with New Testament-style judgment.

--

--

B Kean
B Kean

Written by B Kean

The past holds the answers to today’s problems. “Be curious, not judgmental,” at least until you have all the facts. Think and stop watching cable news.

Responses (13)