Filenews 10 August 2022
With promises of freedom and riches, Russia is pushing convicts to the fronts of the war in Ukraine, as revealed by an article by CNN, which has at its disposal the communication of Russian prisoners with their relatives. The prisoners then disappear, with their loved ones searching for their name in reports of the injured arriving at the country's hospitals.
With the Russian army now exhausted after nearly six months of bloody war, more and more evidence is coming to light, highlighting the Kremlin's tactics in this ugly conflict.
As part of an investigation that lasted for months, CNN spoke with prisoners found to be involved in the devastating war, but also with their relatives and friends. As reported by the AMERICAN media, activists believe that hundreds of convicts in dozens of prisons across the country were called to fight. Among them are murderers and convicted of drug-related crimes.
Tempting motives
In dozens of messages available to CNN, they describe the tempting motives offered to detainees if they agree to fight in Ukraine, with great danger to their lives. According to the most recent Western estimates, even 75,000 Russian soldiers may have been killed or wounded since the start of hostilities. The number is refuted by the Kremlin.
A detainee who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity, from a Russian cell where he lives in crowded conditions, and who has been sentenced to many years in prison for drug trafficking crimes, described the terms of the proposal.
"They accept murderers, but not rapists"
"They accept murderers, but not rapists, paedophiles, extremists or terrorists," he explained. "The proposal includes an amnesty or pardon after six months. Some talk about fees of 100, 000 roubles a month, others about 200,000. Everything is different every time."
He said he received a proposal from unidentified men, who he believes come from a mercenary company, arrived at the prison where he is being held in early July, and told him that if he is admitted to the program he will be trained for two weeks in the Rostov region in southern Russia. Although he has served for two years in the Russian army, he stressed that the unknown men were not interested in his military experience.
"In my case, if it's true, I'm absolutely willing," he said. "It will change everything for me: instead of staying in prison for almost a decade, I can be released in six months if I am lucky. Only if I'm lucky. I just want to get home and my kids as soon as possible. If I have that option, why not?"
Recruitment of thousands of prisoners
The inmate claimed that 50 prisoners have already been selected for recruitment and quarantined inside the prison, but heard that a total of 400 applications have been submitted. Human rights activists working in the Russian penitentiary system noted that since the beginning of July they have been constantly receiving complaints from all over Russia, on behalf of worried relatives who fear for the fate of their imprisoned loved ones.
"In the last three weeks [of July] we have received a huge wave of efforts to recruit thousands of Russian prisoners and involve them in the war," said Vladimir Osetskin, head of the Gulagu.net, an organization for the rights of prisoners.
According to Osetskin, to some prisoners the proposal included sending five million roubles ($82,000) to their families in the event of their deaths. But the financial reward may never come. "There is no guarantee, there is no real contract. It's illegal," he stressed.
Human baits
Some of the detainees and their families seemed to welcome the proposal, he continued. As he said, he assumes that the prisoners are actually used as "baits" on the battlefield, that is, as the persons who attract the bullets of the Ukrainians, in order for the regular Russian army to have the room to fight back effectively. "They go first and when the Ukrainian army sees them, it hits their positions. Then the Russian soldiers see the positions of the Ukrainians and bombard the spot."
CNN approached the Russian Ministry of Defence and the Penitentiary Service (FSIN), but did not receive a response.
Although recruitment has only just begun, reports are already emerging from families of wounded people being treated in the Luhansk region, which is controlled by separatists.
Despair in Russian prisons
CNN has reviewed messages that prisoners exchanged with relatives while they were already at the front. A woman described how she came into contact with her husband, who is hospitalized in Luhansk. As she said, only three prisoners from her husband's unit, which consisted of a total of ten, are still alive.
Other messages among relatives highlight the extent of the despair of prisoners trapped in the Russian justice system, where 99% of cases arriving in courtrooms end in conviction and corruption dominates the prison system.
The Kremlin's responses and "Putin's chef"
Moscow's options for recruitment have begun to dry up. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had initially stated that no conscripts have been called to the war, until the Defence Ministry admitted that it had withdrawn some from the front line, where they had been... by mistake. The Kremlin has said that there will be no mass recruitment in Russia, perhaps for fear that such a policy would displease citizens, especially if there are casualties among the population without significantly changing the balance on the battlefield.
The recruitment of prisoners, according to activists and prisoners, is taking place under the auspices of Wagner, which is not bound by Russian legislation prohibiting the recruitment of prisoners. The detainees have not shared copies of contracts with their families, so the exact terms remain unclear. Wagner, who operates around the world and is headed by Yevgeny Prizogin, a man known as "Putin's chef," is the most controversial Russian mercenary company. Prizogin denies having ties to Wagner.
"The most unprotected part of the population"
Ambiguity, combined with the disappearance of prisoners, increases the fears of their relatives. The half-sister of a missing person stressed speaking to CNN: "It is the most unprotected part of the population. Putin said he would not send prisoners, but he did. With convicts, it is very difficult to reveal where they have been sent."
At the end of July, her mother received a message from an unknown number, written in her son's broken Russian. He wrote that he was healthy and safe, but without giving any further details. "There's a little more time left, but it's going to pass quickly," he told her. "When I can, I'll call you."
Later, the mother received a new call from a person who introduced himself to her as an "accountant" and who pledged to bring her her son's fee in cash a week later.
