The Story of a Soviet Rapist

A single episode doesn't tell us much, except throwing discredit to the theory it was accepted policy coming from the top, we would need much larger numbers to determine what the chances of a soldier getting away with rape were, and how much effort was put into preventing such episodes. Having a copy of the orders quoted so that we could look at the exact wording would also tell us more.

The "liberators" were sometimes not exactly that, and that applies to the western troops as well, the worse atrocity that happened in Italy was committed by French troops, and the allies supported the Sicilian mafia with long ranging consequences. Post war "vendettas" is a murky area where research requires a major effort due to having to wade through layers upon layers of cold war propaganda.

After the German behavior on the East front retaliation was probably inevitablle, but I would not expect any high command to condone troops going on a rampage as it basically involves the sort of discipline breakdown that is abhorrent to the military mindset and makes reinsertment of the demobilized soldiers into civilian life extremely problematic.