This statement is essentially racist because it implies that Russians are inherently inclined towards rape or something, because otherwise the Putin regime and the Stalin led USSR have nothing in common politically.

I don’t know if I would classify it as racism… unless you are claiming Russians aren’t normally perceived as white. It may be ethnically prejudice, but a large aspect of ethnicity is culture.

While race may have no indication on political ideology or creed, ethnicity is firmly rooted in the history of a common people. Political organization may come and go, but there is usually still cultural norms that persist after their reorganization.

Despite Russia changing from a true monarchy, to communism, and finally a federation, the aspect of the government that changed the least was how their military was organized and operated.

Being conscripted by the Russian empire was basically a death sentence due to the length of contract, so much so that your family would throw you a funeral before you left. The command structure was strictly top down, and your fellow conscripts were in charge of maintaining discipline.

This rough outline persisted with the USSR, which makes sense when you realize a lot of the general staff were also generals in the empire. The main aspect that transfered over pertaining to this claim is how the soviets conscripted soldiers, and how they maintain discipline over these conscripts.

A great perspective from an actual Soviet about this topic is Zinky boys, which covers the Soviet Afghan war. Basically, evading conscription was very very easy for anyone who had the money for a bribe, or could play the system. Meaning that the majority of conscripts were either petty criminals or the rural poor.

Which leads us to discipline…how do you keep a half million farmers and small bit criminals in military discipline? Well you have the conscripts do it themselves. Your first two years as a conscript you were beaten, robbed, and often times raped. After you graduated your two years, you would be doing the beating ,robbing, and raping.

This seems hyperbolic, but it’s been widely reported from soldiers serving the Russian state for decades. The Russian federation has done the best when it comes to moving towards a regular professional army, but there are still wide spread reports of violent hazing and predation within their military. Though admittedly a lot less than what happened in Afghanistan or in chechnya.

Basically, race doesn’t really behave anything to do with war crimes. It’s usually entirely based on how bad it is to be a soldier in the military you are serving, and how a military disciplines their soldiers.