No motive for his actions has been given at this stage. The Russian military has opened an investigation.

A Russian soldier shot dead one of his comrades on Friday before committing suicide at a Russian army base in the Moscow region, authorities announced, quoted by news agencies. "On October 17, during the night, within the grounds of a military base in the Moscow region, a soldier on duty at an observation post violated the rules for handling weapons and fatally wounded a soldier," the press service of the Moscow Military District reported, quoted by the official TASS news agency. The soldier then committed suicide, the source said, emphasizing that his victim was a professional soldier under contract with the Russian army. No motive for his actions has been given at this stage. The army has opened an investigation.

Not an isolated case

Russian media outlet Ren-TV, for its part, claimed that three other people may have been injured and that the shooter was a conscript, a soldier performing his mandatory one-year military service in Russia. Murders and suicides on Russian military bases are not uncommon, particularly after hazing and abuse of conscripts.

In October 2019, for example, a 19-year-old conscript opened fire while taking his shift at his Siberian military base, killing eight comrades, including two officers. A few weeks later, he described his "hell" in a letter and explained that he was suffering regular abuse. He was sentenced to 24 years in prison.

The Russian army is currently conducting its autumn conscription campaign and plans to recruit 135,000 young men aged 18 to 30 who, according to the authorities, will be confined to menial tasks in Russia and will not be deployed to the front lines in Ukraine.