– Hello, my husband is a convict, he signed up as a volunteer in the PMC Wagner, help him return.
Yes, you can try. You will need an application.
– Can't you do it without me? No matter how worse it was.
And that's it, she disappears. However, sometimes it may appear again:
– They said that he died, and the body remained in the combat area. Bring me the body.
Employees of "Rus Sidyashchaya" sparingly condole, answer that they are not engaged in the delivery of bodies from the combat area. If this comes across to me, I explain: "Your husband is a war criminal, he voluntarily agreed to go to war with weapons in his hands in a neighboring country that did not attack us."
Probably harsh and brutal. Or not.
There was a rumor that the recruits from the zones were not voluntary. We have been monitoring the recruitment situation in the zones since the beginning of the war. And we see queues. The zeks want to go to war. Their friends and relatives write: “Who should I contact to be taken away to fight as soon as possible?”
If we deal with motivation, then with a stretch we can say that there is a certain element of involuntariness, if anyone wants to call it that. Russian zones are places of torture, bullying and humiliation. For many prisoners, recruiting for the war is the way out. Anything is better than the zone.
And relatives are usually interested in money. About money – eight questions out of ten. Are they deceived? When do you get paid? Why wasn't the contract sent? How much for an injury? What about heavy?
For many prisoners, recruiting for the war is the way out. Anything better than the zone
Several women are still fighting to get their men back to their places of imprisonment. Our very first case was the shortest and most effective.
It was in the Yaroslavl region. He is an ordinary prisoner, convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm. Goat. In a sense, this is his place in the prison hierarchy – he cooperates with the administration of the correctional colony.
But the wife is a bug. This is also a place in the prison hierarchy, and quite honorable. It means that she was also convicted, and during her term she did not cooperate with the administration, “negatively”. She didn’t give in, she stood, she didn’t knock, she didn’t curry favor. And that later the bug married a goat, then this is not considered, then it was in the wild, in the wild there are other laws.
And so she turned to us for help. He was recruited. And there the term was left with a gulkin's nose. They have two children, the youngest is a toddler. She was the first person to contact us in this case. We quickly took instructions to compose, and she rushed to him on a date. And she did it herself, without instructions. Just put the brains in place of the man. Maybe she gave horns, bugs are such people, yes. And he just took the statement. They gave up on him – and without him there is no end to those who wish.
And here is the second story, which also struck me. It happened a little later, when all the instructions had already been written. Anna took advantage of them, and she succeeded. The husband, who had already been recruited, was left in the colony. And the whole colony was left alone.
We talked to her later.
– Anna, what a fine fellow you are, everything worked out for you. You immediately began to fight for your husband. By the way, why?
“I don’t want him to go to fight in a private military company. What more?! Private. Now, if there was a state, then another matter.
Usually I don’t go into my pocket for a word, but at work I began to freeze more and more like a column of salt and go numb.
How it all started
And it started back in February. And even before the war. Rostov prisoners began to tell – they are all massively transported somewhere. They said it was a major overhaul of the colony. It's strange, a normal colony, the barracks have just been rebuilt on their own – in the sense at the expense of relatives, as usual. And no Rostov colonies buy building materials on the public procurement website.
And then the war began. Two colonies were immediately given over to prisoners of war, by that time they had already been settled. Well, there is no longer the Federal Penitentiary Service, there are military police and the FSB.
At the same time, calls came from the BS zones – this is "the safe maintenance of former employees." We have riot police officers, prosecutors-investigators, customs and guards separately from people, they are not allowed to be with people, they will cripple. One of these zones is near Ryazan, the other near Nizhny Novgorod – they came there. They exist in other places, but there were no messages from there.
And then someone came to Ryazan and Nizhny at the end of February, they recruited for the war. It is not clear who. The BS-inmates didn’t really understand, they all refused. Well, what, they are cunning. Well, it’s not shkolota to drive along the boulevards and it’s not business to sew bespectacled intellectuals. There are no fools.
The riot police prisoners all refused. Well, this is not shkolota to drive along the boulevards. There are no fools
It must have been February. In April, we took a closer look at the so-called Chechen battalion, about which little is heard now, but then it endlessly posted videos from Ukraine. And now they found citizens, ethnic Chechens, who still have to wind and wind their sentences. Well, then Chechnya, the territory outside the law, fights without rules. Whom they recruited there, only Allah and his deputy know.
And at the very end of June they came to the zones of the Leningrad region. And it was PMC Wagner – musicians, as they say. The prisoners quickly mastered this vocabulary: we are signing up, they say, in an orchestra.
Something muddy promised. They signed some papers, different everywhere. Someone said that he wrote an agreement to join the ranks of the militia of the DPR. Someone said that he had a form with the heading “Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation”, and there it was necessary to note that he agreed to fight with Ukraine. They said that they would release on parole those who agreed to go to war. Or there will be an amnesty. But at the same time, if they kill, then, therefore, "they will be shot while escaping from the zone."
It all looked like complete nonsense.
And in the first days of July, the first batch of prisoners, 42 people, was taken out of the Leningrad region to the Rostov IK-2. This is one of those areas that allegedly closed for major repairs.
From there, from the Rostov IK-2, some information was still heard from the recruits. They said that they were dressed in green clothes, that they train for 20 hours a day, they eat dry rations hastily. They teach demining and – I don’t know how it is written in military language – assault craft? In general, from prisoners to attack aircraft of accelerated qualification. At the same time, many recruits did not even serve in the army.
Even in the official responses from the Federal Penitentiary Service, when relatives ask – where did they put mine? – answers come that, they say, he was transferred at his own request to IK-12 of the same Rostov region. That's where you look.
Some military training takes place in these zones.
Initially, the training was supposed to last two weeks, but the prisoners of the first, so to speak, tranche went to their first battle on July 14. Apparently, without finishing my studies for a couple of days. This fight was sung by Nikita Mikhalkov in his Besogon. There he spoke about the heroic death of Konstantin Tulinov, who allegedly blew himself up and three other Ukrainians with a grenade so as not to surrender.
In the St. Petersburg zone (IK-7, Yablonevka) they learned about the death of Kostya Ryzhy (in fact, he was better known there under that nickname) a few days after this battle, long before Mikhalkov's pathetic stories. The prisoners said that they were built, and the head of the zone, Alexander Rulev, informed them about the fate of Kostya Ryzhy and about the injury of several more, so to speak, colleagues. The wife of one of the wounded was allowed to talk to him via video link. She was shown some medical documents, from which she realized that her husband was in the hospital not under his last name, but also under a nickname.
Mikhalkov in Besogon claimed that Konstantin Tulinov stumbled in life, but washed away his bad past with blood. Which one, did not spread. And it's understandable why. Tulinov was repeatedly convicted, actively cooperated with the administration, and received his last term for extorting money from cellmates. Simply put, he set up a press hut in Kresty (which you can’t do without the knowledge of the administration, and possibly with its share participation), but overdid it. Besogon also claimed that Tulinov was pardoned posthumously. However, in the Russian Federation there is no mechanism for posthumous pardon. There is a Pardon section on the website of the President of the Russian Federation, but there is no mention of Tulinov either. As well as about other dead or living prisoners who went to fight in Ukraine.
Mikhalkov claimed that Tulinov was pardoned posthumously, but there is no such mechanism in Russia
And representatives of PMC "Wagner" immediately after the visit to the Leningrad region went to Novgorod – even before the first battle of prisoners, sung in Besogon. There, in one of the correctional colonies, prisoners managed to film a helicopter with the inscription “PMC Wagner” on their mobile phones, it was taking off from the restricted area.
Since then, reports of mass recruitment of prisoners began to come from everywhere: from all zones of the European part of Russia, except for the Kaliningrad region (apparently, the enclave prevents such movements). In early August, the PMC reached Tatarstan. At the same time, reports began to come in about recruiting in the pre-trial detention center – details from the Moscow region became known, there even one suspected of theft (a rather easy article) managed to enlist, he was promised a suspension of the criminal case, he was sent to fight, received a shell shock, returned, and right there again ended up in jail. Suspended the case – resumed the case. Well, what, and how you wanted.
Simultaneously with all this, reports began to come in from different zones that “Prigozhin, Putin’s cook, personally came to them” – it was in such wording that they told. It was hard to believe. However, the messages were massive, including from prisoners who would definitely recognize this person. Details were repeated from story to story, from zone to zone, and there were several eyewitnesses with whom Prigozhin spoke personally, as they assured (the record of such conversations was handed over to the editor). Many said that a man who looked a lot like Prigozhin was with the star of the Hero of Russia on his chest. Officially, nothing is known about the awarding of Prigogine.
What do they promise
In the end, everything was more or less cleared up with the papers that prisoners sign when recruiting, and with the promises of the Wagnerites.
About promises a little lower, but with papers so. The prisoners write two papers: a petition for transfer to the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Rostov Region for further serving their sentence, and a petition for pardon addressed to the president. It is clear that none of them has legal force when it comes to sending convicts to war.
Until now, the legal status of the recruits remains completely incomprehensible. And, in fact, on the basis of what they leave the places of deprivation of liberty determined by the court. The courts, it should be noted, behave as if nothing is happening. And the prosecutor's office, including the prosecutor's office for overseeing the observance of the rule of law in places of deprivation of liberty, is carefully looking the other way. And is silent.
However, there was one reaction. One of the lawyers of Rus Sidyashchaya, who tried to get an answer from the leadership of the Yablonevka zone (IK-7, St. Petersburg) to the question of where and on what basis the prisoner sent to fight was located, was summoned to the Investigative Committee in Moscow, allegedly another matter. And there the investigator, in his own office, told the lawyer in plain text: they say, subcontractors (as the FSB is usually called) asked me to tell you that if you continue to do this, they will find drugs in you for ten years. Some time later, the ward of this lawyer, a recruited prisoner who at that time was already wounded and was in a hospital in the Luhansk region, was approached by representatives of the Wagner PMC with direct threats: relatives should stop dealing with the legal grounds for sending the inhabitants of places of detention to the war, otherwise the recruits will have a bad time. What exactly the Wagnerites had in mind is not clear, but the addressee understood it in such a way that they would simply shoot him. The word "nullified" was said. It is often used now in the sense of "kill".
Actually, the promise of execution on the spot is included in the "guaranteed package" of recruiters. It must be said that they promise all the recruits the same thing. They start with gingerbread.
"Gingerbread":
– Salary of 100 thousand rubles a month in cash, another 100 thousand bonuses. In the hands of the recruited or in the hands of relatives. No documents are given to relatives.
– 5 million rubles to relatives in case of death. Yes, several such payments have already been made. Not all of them, but they were.
— Monetary compensation for the injury (which is not specified). In case of a serious injury, they promise to let him go home with the removal of a criminal record. So far, we know nothing about such cases.
– In several zones, a promise was made in the event of a particularly heroic feat to bring a wife or mother on a date on a plane. Well, there is nothing to comment on, apparently.
– After six months of participation in a military operation (precisely after the first battle, and not after agreeing to recruit)
– sent home by a free man, the removal of all criminal records and a pardon from the president.
"Whips":
– Execution on the spot for attempted desertion or surrender. This is indirectly confirmed by the stories of both the recruited prisoners themselves and the Wagnerites: behind the prisoners comes a detachment of "more experienced Wagner fighters."
– Execution on the spot for the use of drugs or alcohol.
— Shot on the spot for looting. (It is interesting that the old residents of ORDLO, with whom I periodically talk at work, as well as heart to heart, remember Igor Strelkov-Girkin with great warmth precisely for this – for shooting marauders on the spot without trial or investigation. To my weak attempts to object that there may be mistakes, but it is necessary to understand, there is a court – they shrug their shoulders).
In the end, if we proceed from the fact that mercenarism in the Russian Federation is prohibited by law, and the money from PMCs seems to be flowing like a river, sooner or later they will think: why give it to prisoners? They are final. Let, of course, the prisoners fight. And before the salary, you can shoot. Looting allowed! Go prove it.
On August 16, an amateur advertising video appeared on VKontakte with the participation of prisoners – the newly minted Wagnerites. The main message is that we are not cannon fodder, we all get hurt here. The first person to say this is convict Mikhail Shpakovsky from IK-7, Pankovka, Novgorod region. He was employed in the area as a fireman. He was killed on the fifth day after the publication of the video.
In general, among the first prisoners who entered the battle in mid-July, ten percent remained alive. And it is completely unclear what will happen to the seriously wounded. We are following some of them. Here, for example, is a certain Palchevsky Semyon Andreevich, also from Pankovka. His arm was torn off, he was treated in a hospital in Luhansk. He was one of the first seriously injured. In recent days, he has stopped communicating. He is not at home, in the zone, too. Where he is is unknown. If we are now shown a whole and healthy Palchevsky, who has not gone anywhere and is sitting quietly in IK-7, then this is his father. Dynasty.
What now
According to the most conservative estimates, about five thousand prisoners have been recruited into private military companies (it seems that not all of them are Wagner's) to date. But not all of them are at the front: some are still being trained, some have not yet been taken from the zones – they cannot cope with the flow of applicants. And someone has already been killed.
And this despite the fact that PMCs have so far combed only the zones of the European part of Russia. One of the prisoners says that the Wagnerites or Prigozhin personally mentioned that they were going to recruit 20,000 prisoners. But more often the number 50 thousand is repeated.
Will they? Easy, if they go to the Urals and further, to Siberia.
A man who looks like Yevgeny Prigozhin tells the prisoners: "I promised the president to win this war."
It seems that it is. Promised. And it's the president.
For no one in Russia, no one – neither Patrushev nor Bortnikov, not to mention such a small fry as the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, could not have managed to remove so many prisoners from the legal field.
Just imagine: in a serious regime area – and sometimes it’s not only a zone of strict regime, but also a special regime where they don’t sit by mistake – a helicopter of a private company lands. And the people who got out of the helicopter simply kicked out the employees along with the authorities. In front of the prisoners. They occupy headquarters, are located in offices, take away personal files. They bring a polygraph – interviews are conducted with him, especially interested in the attitude towards Ukraine.
Then they just take people. They take away. Those who are taken away are allowed to bring a change of shorts and socks, as well as two packs of cigarettes. Nothing else. They say that "there" everything will be.
Those who are taken away are allowed to bring a change of shorts, socks and two packs of cigarettes.
In fact, the ground should burn under the feet of the jailers. They understand that they will be extreme. It is they who are responsible for the life and health of the prisoners (although they don’t give a damn about either), but if something happens, they have to explain something. What will they explain? That a bald uncle flew in in a blue helicopter and took away whomever he wanted?
What about the court's decision?
But what about the timing?
Re-education, rehabilitation, return to society of its member?
Where is your member?
The prison authorities are well aware that the policy will be different tomorrow, so what? Who will be appointed last? And prosecutors understand this. And the FSB.
And they all really do not want politics to become different tomorrow.
Now they need only two things: eternal Putin and eternal war.
It's good for the military. They are nothing. They write answers to any requests: it's not us. We don't have a criminal record. We don't know anything. Целуем крепко, ваше Министерство обороны.
У нас вон армией непонятно кто командует, а вы еще хотите, чтобы мы за Вагнера отдувались. Нашли дураков по рублю за пучок.
Ну да, нашли.
А тем временем множатся слухи, что из зон стали забирать не только добровольцев. В одной из тульских зон сидел себе парень, ему сейчас 28 лет. Бывший сотрудник МЧС, в очень хорошей физической форме. Сидел за убийство — вагнеровцы вообще такое приветствуют, убийц берут прежде всех. Но наш МЧСник не хотел воевать. Он отсидел половину своего срока (11 лет), на свободе его ждет хорошая жена и трое детей. Он твердо отказался ехать.
Тем временем множатся слухи, что из зон стали забирать не только добровольцев
А недавно жена узнала, что его забрали. Сказали, когда уже уехал. Позвонить ему не дали. Потом парни, сумевшие отбрехаться, шепнули — прессанули твоего сильно.
Вот она сейчас пытается его вернуть. Мы помогаем. Я верю, что у них получится. Сильная она. Хорошая. А его подвела хорошая физическая форма.
Если ее нет, то еще можно соскочить. Вот у нас еще одна жучка есть, в смысле из отсидевших строгих барышень. В Ухте ее принц сидел. Тоже записался, дурик. Позвонил ей, доложился. Она примчалась мигом. Забирай, говорит, ходатайства и прошения, сиди на жопе ровно.
— Так обнулить же за такое обещали!
— Не заберешь, так я сама тебя обнулю. Прямо тут.
Забрал. Сидит. Не трогают.
Знают, видно, жучку-то нашу.