As Russia continues to suffer losses in its invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has refused to announce a full-blown mobilization – a move that could be very unpopular for President Vladimir Putin
The prisoners at the penal colony in St. Petersburg were expecting a visit by officials, thinking it would be some sort of inspection. Instead, men in uniform arrived and offered them amnesty – if they agreed to fight alongside the Russian army in Ukraine.
“We’re seeing a huge outflow of people who want to leave the war zone – those who have been serving for a long time and those who have signed a contract just recently,” said Alexei Tabalov, a lawyer who runs the Conscript’s School legal aid group. A Russian soldier speaks to foreign journalists in front of the ruined Metallurgical Combine Azovstal, in Mariupol, Ukraine.The AP saw thousands of openings on job search websites for various military specialists.
The recruitment of prisoners has been going on in recent weeks in as many as seven regions, said Vladimir Osechkin, founder of the Gulagu.net prisoner rights group, citing inmates and their relatives that his group had contacted. Yevgeny Prigozhin, an entrepreneur known as “Putin’s chef” because of his catering contracts with the Kremlin and reportedly Wagner’s manager and financier, brushed aside reports that he personally visited prisons to recruit convicts, in a written statement released by his representatives this month. Prigozhin, in fact, denies he has any ties to Wagner, which reportedly has sent military contractors to places like Syria and sub-Saharan Africa.
Her account couldn’t be independently verified, but was in line with multiple reports by independent Russian media and human rights groups.
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