Russian Butchery of Soldiers: An Update

Back in June, we translated from the pages of Novaya Gazeta a story about Russian soldiers having their organs harvested and sold for profit.  Now, the Moscow Times updates the story:

It’s been more than seven years since the border guards, a unit of the Federal Security Service, returned Alma Bukharbayeva’s teenage son in a sealed casket.

Marat Burtubayev, 18, was serving with his unit in the Khabarovsk region, near the Chinese border, for his required two years of military service. He was eight months into his service when commanders said the young recruit hanged himself in January 2003.

But what they did not explain — and what Bukharbayeva has been trying to learn ever since — is what happened to her son’s internal organs.

EDITORIAL: Suicide is Painless

EDITORIAL

Suicide is Painless

Through early morning fog I see
Visions of the things to be
The pains that are withheld for me
I realize and I can see
That suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please.

— “Suicide is Painless”
Music by Johnny Mandel, lyrics by Mike Altman
Theme from the feature film “M*A*S*H”

Since Russia is a nation with less than half the population of the United States (a gap that grows wider every single day), in order for Russia to have more deaths by suicide in a given year the rate of suicide among Russians would have to be more that twice as high as it is among Americans.

And that’s the case.