Putin’s Warfare: An Overview of Casualties
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Since Vladimir Putin was first inaugurated as president on December 31, 1999, Russia has been in several wars. There were two things I wanted to find out. How long has Putin been waging wars and how many people have been killed in these wars. Although Vladimir Putin was not president, but prime minister for a period of time, there is no doubt about who was the real leader of Russia.
Putin a dictator
As the table below shows, the wars are numerous and the death toll is very high. Under Vladimir Putin’s leadership, Russia has gone from a country moving towards democracy to an authoritarian regime where Putin and his party control everything from the national assembly to the judiciary and the press. This is one of the reasons why I describe him as a dictator. The so-called free elections in Russia are in reality rigged and therefore not free.
Russia’s wars in many places are a result of the Moscow regime having unlimited power. All the wars Russia has waged must also be seen as imperialism. The desire to expand its territory and area of control is also imperialism. I define Putin’s regime as a totalitarian and imperialist regime. The goal is to rebuild the borders and the Sphere of Russia, as it was during the time of the Soviet Union.
The wars and the number of people killed
This is an overview of all wars from 2000 until today.
| War | From – To | Duration in days | Number of fatalities |
| The second Chechen war | 26.10.1999 – 16.04.2009 | 3,393 (calculated from 01.01.2010) | 25.000 – 100.000 |
| South Ossetia | 08..08.2008 – 10.08.2008 | 2 | 100 – 2.000 |
| Crimea and Donbas | 20.02.2014 – 23.04.2022 | 2.925 | 14.200 – 14.400 |
| Syria | 30.09.2015 – 15.03.2016 | 167 | 18.000 |
| Ukraine | 24.02.2022 – ? | 1.518 | 340.000 – 2.000.000 |
About the numbers
Photo: ДСНС України. Ukraine Goverment
The figures are highly uncertain. In the overview, I have included figures on the number of fatalities from those with the lowest estimates all the way up to those with the highest estimates. The figures are particularly uncertain in the ongoing war in Ukraine, the reason for this is that the parties are trying to keep their own casualty figures hidden. Attempting to keep casualty figures hidden is done so that the opponent does not get that information. There is reason to believe that the number of people killed here is over 1 million, most of whom are Russian soldiers.
The overview shows that the only period in which Russia was not formally involved in any wars was from 16.04.2009 to 20.02.2014. That’s a period of 1,771 days. To date, Vladimir Putin has been in power in Russia for a total of 9,608 days. 18.4% of that time Russia has not been formally involved in any war. 81.6% of the time there have been one or more wars. Conflicts involving Russian militia groups are not included. Although they are Russian military forces, they are not part of the official forces. Therefore, they are not included in the calculation
The number of fatalities varies considerably and the figures are uncertain. If the lowest estimates are used, the total number of soldiers and civilians killed is 397,300. In other words, 41 people have been killed per day throughout Putin’s time as Russia’s supreme leader. If the highest estimates are taken into account, the total number of people killed is 2,134,400. This equates to 222 people killed every single day since Putin became president.
Sources:
ChatGPT has been used in the work on this blog to verify the numbers