'The Kremlin doesn't care': Ex-Wagner fighters cause havoc in Russia and the Caucasus

In October, Denis Stepanov was charged over the killing of two women, after allegedly burning down a house in Siberia.

Just days before another man - identified only as "Vladimir V" - was accused of murdering a 4-year-old child. Intoxicated and brawling with his wife, investigators say he struck her daughter, who later died of the injuries.

What these two grizzly cases have in common is both suspects are ex-Wagner fighters.

Yet, this is the tip of the iceberg. 

Increasingly since June’s failed mutiny, thousands of men from the Russian mercenary group have left Ukraine and come home to roost.

Even on the battlefield, they were accused of war crimes including murder, rape and robbery of Ukrainian civilians, as well as torturing and executing deserters. 

Now, it seems, some are bringing trouble back with them. 

While there are no official statistics, several former Wagner troops have been detained or arrested in Russia in recent months over a string of crimes, ranging from extortion to assassination attempts. 

During Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the late Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin recruited tens of thousands of convicts to fight in some of the war's bloodiest battles. They were promised they would later be pardoned and have their criminal records wiped in exchange for their service. 

Many are thought to have died, with UK intelligence estimating in June that up to 20,000 former inmates were killed in just a few months in the Bakhmut "meat grinder". 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in September that Russian prisoners who died fighting in Ukraine had "redeemed themselves" in the eyes of society.

"Everyone can make some mistakes - they once did. But they gave their lives for the Motherland, and fully redeemed themselves," he