[FoxNews] Vladimir Osechkin calls the active recruitment of Russian prisoners for work on the front lines of the war a cynical act. According to his sources — he gets tips from a range of people including prisoners' families — these efforts have been recently stepped up.
The army wants sappers as the Russian military has lost quite a few and it takes many years to train de-miners up. Russia, according to Osechkin, is also looking for men to send out as a sort of bait for Ukrainian soldiers — to draw fire from them in order to help Russians trace and then attack their positions. Finally, Osechkin says, they are tapping convicted killers and others with violent records to form "killer brigades" to shoot, cut and maim "the enemy."
Osechkin says the number of takers of such offers dropped off at one point when inmates began wising up to the fact that they might be used as cannon fodder. He believes that prompted an infamous man sometimes called "Putin's Chef" to himself start making the rounds of prisons. This has not been confirmed, but Osechkin is not the only one who has heard the reports.
The independent Mediazona outlet heard it from a few inmates. The "chef" is himself an ex-convict. Turned billionaire from involvement in many businesses from catering to running the mercenary group Wagner, which he incidentally denies, Yevgeny Prigozhin is said to be close to the Russian president.
"Apparently, like an ace, like a trump card, Putin pulled out Prigozhin and personally sent him to meetings with prisoners," Osechkin said, adding that Prigozhin could do an easy sell, saying something like, "I myself was once in prison, and now I am recruiting you. I have become a hero of Russia and you also have a chance in Putin's current system, to climb the ladder, get rich."
Mediazona interviewed prisoners who allegedly heard Prigozhin offer them "amnesty and money." And in the meeting with recruiters, one inmate recalled being told "we’re interested in murderers and burglars."
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