Dead Drop: November 24

GET OUT OF (RUSSIAN) JAIL FREE CARD: Long ago, when Moscow’s planned three-day invasion of Ukraine had dragged on for several months – the Kremlin’s military recruiters came up with the idea of releasing men from Russian prisons if they were willing to serve on the front lines.  Conditions in Russian prisons must be pretty bad if trading a jail cell for being cannon fodder sounds like a good idea. Well, now a member of the Russian State Duma has doubled down on the idea of prisoner release to help solve another of the country’s problems – low birth rate. Valery Seleznyov has reportedly proposed releasing female prisoners willing to trade confinement for motherhood. Well, there is a catch. Seleznyov says the women would be released for a “conception vacation.” Cons who become mothers for the Motherland would be rewarded by having the rest of their sentences canceled. Russia has suffered from a high mortality and low birth rate problem for some time – so even without the Ukraine war, the plan may be appealing to some.  If the war in Ukraine drags on, the Kremlin may elect to address the soldier shortage by growing their own.

BURIED ASSETS: In a wartime economy, sometimes a government must save money.  According to some press accounts, the Russian military has found a cold-hearted way to do that.  Under the Kremlin’s system, the families of soldiers who are killed in the line of duty receive a death gratuity of five million rubles (about $56,000.) But there’s a catch.  You have to be able to prove your loved one is dead – and to do that you need a body.  According to some reports, Russian military units in Ukraine have been abandoning fighters killed on the battlefield, in part, so that they don’t have to compensate the families. The British tabloid, The Mirror, reported last week that Nadezhda Kharichkina, the wife of a Russian soldier, had been told by her husband’s comrades that he had been killed in battle.  But when the mother of five contacted her husband’s commander she was told to come to the front line and “dig up your husband.” Not all families are being treated so harshly.  Other Russian war widows are reportedly thrilled to be receiving new refrigerators to replace the old man.