Relatives of a student from Kazakhstan reported that he was forcibly recruited into the PMC

Magulan Bekenov, a student of Tomsk State University and a citizen of Kazakhstan, was, according to his relatives, forcibly recruited into PMC “Wagner” and taken to the combat zone in Ukraine. His mother, Almira Bekenova, informed Sibir.Realia about this.

“At first, we were surprised that in March instead of Tomsk, he suddenly found himself in the Krasnodar region, allegedly going to see his girlfriend, with whom no one from the family even knew. When we started to find out, it turned out that unknown people actually kidnapped him and recruited him to the PMC” Wagner “. I arranged a meeting with him at the Molkino farm, there are signs of these Wagnerites everywhere. They didn’t let me talk to my son, he is in a terrible condition, but he confirmed that he did not sign any contracts,” Bekenova reported.

The Bekenovs reported to the military prosecutor’s office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan and Russia about the illegal detention of a 22-year-old citizen of Kazakhstan, and wrote to the presidents of both countries. However, official appeals did not yield any results – on April 12, Bekenov was sent to the combat zone, his mother reported. There are no comments from PMC “Wagner” representatives or the authorities yet.

• Earlier, Sibir.Realii wrote that the six mobilized from Yakutia were included in the so-called private military companies without their consent and sent to Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, where fighting continues.
• PMC “Wagner” is a Russian unofficial military unit that takes part in ground operations in Syria, Africa and in the war with Ukraine. The company’s fighters are suspected of committing numerous war crimes, including extrajudicial executions. The creator and sponsor of the PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, does not deny them, although he does not recognize them directly.
• From the spring of 2022, information began to appear in the media that PMC “Wagner” was recruiting prisoners in Russian colonies to participate in the war with Ukraine in exchange for a pardon. Later, Yevgeny Prigozhin announced that he was stopping the recruitment of prisoners in the colonies, and soon the formation began to recruit volunteers in sports halls.