Prigozhin told about the pardon of five thousand prisoners

Yevgeny Prigozhin announced the pardon of more than five thousand prisoners who joined the so-called “Wagner” PMC.

According to the businessman and founder of ChVU, only 0.31% of those pardoned after the end of the contract committed a second crime within a month after returning from the combat zone in Ukraine. According to Prigozhin, this indicator is 10-20 times less than the standard one.

“We have reduced crime in Russia tenfold, and we have trained former prisoners better than they trained pioneers and October workers in the Soviet era,” says the comment published by the businessman’s press service.

“Basically, those who commit crimes — [наносят] injuries of varying degrees of severity to those people who support the Kyiv regime,” Prigozhin said.

There are no official reports on the number of pardoned participants of PMC “Vanger”.

• PMC “Wagner” is a Russian unofficial military unit whose fighters have taken part or are taking part in military operations in Syria, Africa and Ukraine. The head of PMC “Wagner” is entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin, known for his friendship with President Vladimir Putin and the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.
• Russian legislation prohibits the activities of private military companies. The authorities officially call the fighters of PMC “Wagner” volunteers.
• According to US intelligence, the number of the PMC group in the war zone with Ukraine could reach 50 thousand people, 90% of whom are recruited prisoners.
• At the beginning of the year, it became known about the pardon of prisoners after six months at the front. Eva Merkacheva, a member of the Council on Human Rights under the President of Russia, said that formally prisoners are released even before they are taken out of the colonies to participate in hostilities.
• At the end of January, the Kremlin announced that the decrees of the President of Russia on pardoning prisoners recruited to participate in the war with Ukraine are classified, but “the entire pardon procedure is carried out in strict accordance with Russian legislation.”
• Journalists and social media users reported that among those pardoned were also those convicted of serious crimes, including murder.
• The latest UN report on human rights states that between August 1 last year and January 31, 2023, 11 out of 15 allegedly killed Ukrainian prisoners of war were executed by the mercenaries of PMC “Wagner”.