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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| With Putin's Support, Prigozhin Is Recruiting Russian Prisoners Who Were Then Sent As Cannon Fodder to the Front in Ukraine. |
| 2022-11-20 |
| [Medium.com] Prigozhin promised them to release after six months on the front, but 99% perished before that. Without any official function in the Russian state apparatus, the businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin has the power to commute prison sentences into capital punishment. By the tens of thousands, he takes Russian prisoners out of their cells and places them in assault sections on the Ukrainian front, with little chance of escape. His private military company named Wagner is doing a great service to the Russian head of state, Vladimir Putin, who is struggling to replenish the ranks of his invasion army, already partly decimated after more than nine months of the war in Ukraine. The losses are appalling. "Ninety-nine percent perish," says Olga Romanova, founder of Rus Sidiachaya ("Russia in the Shadow"), an NGO that has been defending prisoners’ rights since 2008. "Of the first batch of prisoners sent to the front in June 2022, 500 prisoners, only two are still alive," continues the activist who has been living in Berlin since 2017 to escape politically motivated prosecution. The two survivors, Andrei Yastrebov and Semion Palchevsky, both suffer from serious injuries. The mother of the former received 151,000 rubles (about $2,400) in cash in an envelope handed over by employees of Wagner Group, according to Vladimir Osetchkin, founder of the NGO Gulagu.net. The second, whose left hand is paralyzed, is reportedly out of the hospital and still on the front line. Cannon fodder The first Wagner prisoner fighters appeared on the battlefield on July 14, 2022, in Vouhlehirsk, Donetsk region. Leading extraordinarily risky frontal assaults, they were immediately identified by the Ukrainian military for their ability to repeat attacks despite very heavy casualties. This primitive use of cannon fodder allowed Russian forces to gain ground in the early summer of 2022, before stumbling upon the town of Bakhmut, where some of the Wagner units are concentrated. "They are exclusively deployed in the front line. Behind them are the ’barrier troops’ [responsible for shooting at the frontline soldiers in case they retreat], then the mobilized and finally the professional soldiers," summarizes Olga Romanova. According to Rus Sidiachaya, who claims to have informants "in all prisons, remand prisons and penal colonies of Russia," the SMP Wagner has already built up an army of about 30,000 to 35,000 inmates since June 2022, when the prison recruitment campaign began. "Our sources tell us every day how many prisoners have signed up with Wagner, and how many are being transferred," says Olga Romanova. At present, 25,000 Russian prisoners are fighting on the front in Ukraine. The 5,000 newly recruited are trained at three known Wagner bases in the Russian regions of Rostov, Voronezh, and Kursk, bordering Ukraine. Their existence is an indication of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s growing financial windfall. Before the invasion of Ukraine, Wagner operated only one military base in the Krasnodar region (southwest) to train its mercenaries to fight in Syria and on the African continent. The Russian detainees who enlist for Ukraine are mostly recruited by the businessman himself. In a video published on October 14, 2022, by allies of the incarcerated opponent Alexei Navalny, Yevgeny Prigozhin is seen haranguing prisoners in the Bataysk remand prison â„–15 in the Rostov region, gathered in a semi-circle around him. Speaking with bandit-like intonations and in prison jargon full of sexual connotations, the Wagner boss promised automatic freedom after six months to those who signed up, without any legal basis for this. Yevgeny Prigozhin’s words to recruit in Russian prisons hit the nail on the head: according to statistics compiled by Rus Sidiachaïa, on average one-third of the inmates end up signing a contract. However, the recruiter specifies that these men have the mission to go on the attack and that the chances of survival are low. Whoever backs down, surrenders or deserts is liquidated on the spot. According to the founder of the NGO, this threat has already been carried out, and she cites the figure of at least 40 recruited detainees murdered by their colleagues. |
| Posted by:Thaish Omuns2886 |
| #2 I'm just spit-balling here, but is it possible that fighting in Ukraine with the "musicians" is a better deal than Russian prison? I'm told they are a fairly professional group. Plus, it's outdoor work. Not that I am questioning the numbers provided by self-serving NGOs, he said trying to keep a straight face. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2022-11-20 17:12 |
| #1 We're almost back to the penal battalions. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2022-11-20 16:28 |