December 8, 2025: The Ukraine War has been a disaster for Russia. There is a labor shortage because over two million men have been removed from the workforce. Half of these are soldiers who were killed, disabled or missing in Ukraine. The other half are military age men who fled the country to avoid getting put into the army and killed in Ukraine. While it’s illegal for Russian men to leave the country to avoid military service, when it’s a matter of life or death, motivation overrides laws and rules.

Some events in the war revealed the extent of corruption in the government. When Ukrainian forces entered Russia in 2024 via Kursk province, local officials were revealed as unprepared and had stolen the money needed for border security. It was later revealed that other stretches of the Ukraine/Russia border were similarly undefended. When Russia brought in North Korea troops, their first job was to fight the Ukrainian troops inside Russia and push them out. That took several months and a third of the North Korea troops were killed or wounded.

Then there is Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov. During the 1990s Russia restored order in the Caucasus region of Chechnya by enticing, with cash and legal rule of Chechnya, Ramzan’s father to side with Russia. That was a major factor in ending the rebellion. Ramzan has led armed Chechens to fight for Russia in Ukraine. Russia gave Ramzan more money to remain a loyal supporter of the Russian war in Ukraine.

It will take more cash than Russia can afford to deal with the problems caused by returning veterans of the Ukraine War. This is especially true with the thousands of veterans who joined the army to get out of prison and earn a pardon. Many of those now back in Russia have returned to their old gangsters’ lifestyle, enhanced by the combat experience and other connections picked up while in Ukraine. This is made worse by the shortage of police all over Russia because so many policemen had joined the army to fight in Ukraine. The police were, and still are, poorly paid and the signing bonuses plus the monthly pay were more money than these policemen thought they’d ever see. Many of those policemen turned soldiers died in Ukraine and many of those who returned to Russia found better paying jobs because of a labor shortage and continued low pay for the police. This has led to a crime wave that has hit rural Russia particularly hard. In the major cities there is still some police and a lot of private security ava

And then there is an increase in Islamic terrorist attacks in Russia. The government blames this on the Americans and Ukraine. Few Russians believe that, because the threat of Islamic terrorism has been around long before the Ukraine War. The shortage of security personnel inside Russia makes it easier for the Islamic terrorists to plan and execute attacks or simply engage in profitable crimes.

The FSB, which is similar to the U.S. FBI or Britain’s MI5 concentrates on finding and punishing Russians who oppose the war in Ukraine. If they went after criminals, they might run into politicians with enough clout to make the FSB back off. Meanwhile the average Russian is feeling increasingly unsafe. Russian leaders shrug off such complaints because the war in Ukraine remains a higher priority undertaking.