Relatives of the convicts staged a rally near the Toguchin IK-14 in the Novosibirsk region. About 30 people demanded that the authorities of the colony find out where their relatives are, with whom there has been no contact since October 30.
They also demanded that they be given the right to call and meet, to organize a meeting with members of the PMC, and until that time to block the sending of those who agreed to a "special operation". This is reported by "Taiga.Info" with reference to relatives.
The publication notes that the relatives of at least eight people who gathered at IK-14 could sign a contract with the Wagner PMC and go to Ukraine. They described their demands in an appeal to the head of the colony, Yuri Kornev.
Earlier, the Novosibirsk Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service, under the pretext of the spread of covid, announced that since October 25 in IK-14, as well as colonies No. 2, No. 3, No. 8, No. 12, No. 13 and No. 18, “long and short-term visits with convicts have been temporarily suspended” . This list coincides with the list of institutions where, according to human rights activists, recruitment to the Wagner PMC could take place.
In September, a video appeared on the network, in which Prigozhin recruited prisoners from IK-6 of Yoshkar-Ola to participate in the war against Ukraine. On the footage, he stands in front of a line of prisoners and tells them about the conditions of service; in this video, for the first time, he says in plain text that he owns the Wagner PMC. The convicts told The Insider even before the video appeared that Prigozhin personally recruited prisoners in Russian colonies, offering release in six months for participation in hostilities in Ukraine. According to the prisoners, Prigozhin does not hide the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally sanctioned their recruitment. The human rights activist, the head of the “Rus Sitting” Foundation, Olga Romanova, stated that a cannibal maniac would also go to war.
At the same time, the State Duma only on October 27 adopted in the third reading a law that allows the mobilization of citizens who have an unexpunged or outstanding conviction for committing some serious crimes. It was allowed to send murderers and rapists to the war in Ukraine, since the articles under which they are convicted are not on the list of exceptions. Both the video with Prigozhin and the stories of prisoners appeared before the adoption of the law, so prisoners were recruited illegally all this time. According to RBC, the draft law involves changing the paragraph of the law "On mobilization", according to which previously persons with an unexpunged or outstanding conviction for a serious crime could not be mobilized.
Prigozhin is a recidivist criminal convicted of theft, fraud and involvement of minors in criminal activities. His mercenaries are involved in many operations abroad, in some cases (as, for example, during the invasion of Ukraine) under the direct command of the GRU. Prigozhin is nicknamed "Putin's chef" because he organizes Kremlin dinners. He also funds the Internet Research Agency, the largest troll factory in Russia.