prisoners are threatened with new cases for refusing to go to war

Prisoners in Russian colonies are threatened with new criminal cases for refusing to go to war in Ukraine in the ranks of Wagner’s PMC. Lawyer Yana Helmel and former member of the Perm Regional Public Supervisory Commission Oksana Asaulenko informed the Agency about this.

According to Yana Helmel, prisoners are under pressure in the colonies of Samara and Rostov regions, Krasnodar region and regions of the North Caucasus. “The operatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the FSB come, they promise to bring up old cases of 10-20 years ago, for which the statute of limitations has already passed, they threaten that they will initiate cases against those who refuse to go to war,” she asserts.

Another lawyer, who asked not to be named, said that the most active recruiting takes place in the colonies of regions that are close to the Ukrainian border and from where it is possible to quickly take prisoners to the front.

Human rights activist Oksana Asaulenko told the publication about the same pressure in the colonies of the Perm region. Thus, one of the prisoners signed a contract with Wagner PMC five months before his release, and in a conversation with his mother, according to her, he hinted that he was forced to join PMC.

Also, “Agency” sources report that in remand prisons, in particular in Samara, Moscow, and Perm, those arrested began to be offered to join the Wagner PMC, promising to close criminal cases.

According to Yana Helmel, the new methods of recruiting Russian prisoners are due to the fact that fewer and fewer people are ready to sign a contract with “PMC Wagner” in contrast to the summer and autumn of 2022, since information about the number of killed and wounded began to reach the colonies.

How many people were recruited for the war from Russian colonies is not reliably known. FSIN announced a reduction in the number of prisoners last year by almost 30,000 people. By the beginning of February, “Mediazona” was able to confirm the death of 567 recruited prisoners – the real numbers may be significantly higher.

• PMC Wagner” is an unofficial Russian armed unit that does not belong to the Ministry of Defense of Russia or other state structures. Fighters of “PMC Wagner” participate in ground operations in Syria, Africa and in the war with Ukraine. Mercenaries are suspected of committing numerous war crimes.
• From the spring of 2022, information began to appear in the mass media that Wagner’s PMC was recruiting prisoners in Russian colonies to participate in the war with Ukraine in exchange for a pardon. It is still unknown how this is legally formalized. The Kremlin said that this information is classified.