Members of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society and human rights appealed to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov with a request to clarify the situation with prisoners who are sent to war. The appeal was published on the website of the Human Rights Council.
As stated in the letter, “information was widely disseminated (the Besogon TV program in the Vesti program on the Rossiya-1 channel on Sunday, August 7, 2022) that there are now thousands of prisoners with unserved terms throughout Russia for various, in including grave, crimes are sent to Ukraine to participate in a special military operation.” The authors of the letter note that there are three reasons in the law for releasing a convict from punishment: pardon, amnesty and parole. They can be appointed by the president, the State Duma and the court.
“In connection with the foregoing, we ask you to explain on what basis these persons are released from serving the conclusion, if this information is true?”, The appeal says.
There is a massive "mobilization" of prisoners in Russia. Relatives of the convicts have been reporting this since July. Prisoners are taken to the war in Ukraine from almost all over the country. People in the colonies without paperwork are offered to sign up as "volunteers" in the PMC "Wagner" and leave to fight.
On September 14, a video appeared on Telegram channels showing “Putin’s chef” Yevgeny Prigozhin recruiting prisoners from IK-6 of Yoshkar-Ola to participate in the war against Ukraine. In the published footage, he stands in front of a line of prisoners and tells them about the conditions of service. It is noteworthy that Prigozhin also directly says that he owns the Wagner PMC.
Earlier, the convicts themselves told The Insider that Prigozhin personally recruits prisoners in Russian colonies, offering release in six months for participation in hostilities in Ukraine. According to them, Prigozhin does not hide the fact that Vladimir Putin personally authorized the recruitment of criminals for the war (whether it is true or not, the Federal Penitentiary Service provides "Putin's cook" with full assistance in his communication with convicts in the colonies).
On September 15, it became known that not only rapists and murderers, but also a cannibal maniac went to war in Ukraine from Russian colonies, said Olga Romanova, a human rights activist and head of the Rus Seated Foundation, on the Popular Politics YouTube channel. According to her, Prigozhin has already recruited up to 10 thousand prisoners.