More than 20,000 prisoners have been recruited to take part in hostilities in Ukraine, the Agency reports , citing Olga Romanova, head of the Rus Sidyashchaya foundation.
A week ago, 15,000 recruits were reported. The human rights activist connects such a jump with the fact that PMC Wagner went to the colonies beyond the Urals, and also began to recruit convicted citizens of the CIS for the war. At the end of September, it became known that recruiters had arrived in the Orenburg correctional colonies.
Earlier, "Important Stories" found out that in addition to the PMC "Wagner", the Ministry of Defense is already recruiting prisoners in the colonies. At first, convicts were voluntarily sent to the front, but recently it became known that they were sent there by force.
Russian senators have drafted a bill that would allow prisoners to legally go to war and, in some cases, receive subsequent release from punishment if they "show courage and heroism in military service." According to the new law, those convicted for a term of less than five years will be called up for war. At the same time, senators do not want to send to war those convicted for violating the rules for holding rallies, riots, “discrediting” the RF Armed Forces, “propaganda of Nazi symbols”, calls for sanctions against the Russian Federation, “dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the RF Armed Forces.”