Dead Drop: December 1

RUSSIAN ARMY RECRUITING PROBLEM BEGINS TO BITE:  As Vladmir Putin’s planned 3-day invasion of Ukraine approaches its two-year anniversary, (or if you count from the 2014 incursion – it’s tenth) Russia’s military recruiters are having big challenges sating the Kremlin’s hunger for fresh troops. Normal enlistments and draft notices have long failed to serve up enough fresh recruits for the meatgrinder of a conflict.  And some time ago, those charged with procuring war bodies for the front lines turned to the tactic of combing Russian prisons for convicts who are willing to trade incarceration for enlistment. But we had no idea things had gotten so bad until we read recently that a man named Denis Gorin, 44, who had been convicted of murder and cannibalism before being sprung from prison to join the troops at the front. Details of Gorin’s gory story are a bit muddled – but The New York Post served up some interesting details saying he was accused of killing at least four people and eating parts of two. Other accounts say he had butchered at least 13 people. And here is the shocking part. The first time Gorin was convicted of murdering and eating someone – he was sentenced to just ten years – and got out early on good behavior. About a year after being released the first time, he struck again and reportedly stored leftovers from some of his victims in his fridge. Gorin had been back in prison for the past decade – but now is on the Ukrainian front – presumably armed with an assault weapon – and perhaps knife and fork.

STARTING THEM YOUNG:  Just in case Russia runs out of cannibals, they have come up with other sources of man (or boy) power. Reuters says Adam Kadyrov the son of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has been named an “observer” in a new battalion that is part of Russia’s defense ministry forces. Adam turned 16 last week, but he is no neophyte. He previously had been appointed top bodyguard to his father – and prior to that, was seen in a social media video punching and kicking a prisoner who had been accused of burning a Koran. The young man was awarded the “Hero of Chechnya” title for beating a defenseless man in a Chechen jail.