Rosgvardiya hires ex-prisoners from PMC “Wagner”

The Roshvardiya began to recruit mercenaries of the private military company “Wagner” from among former prisoners, reports “Vazhney istorii” with reference to the relatives of the mercenaries.

According to the publication, only those who have been tried for crimes of minor and medium gravity are taken to the state service. In addition, they are not offered managerial positions.

In the summer of last year, after several military defeats by the Russian army on the territory of Ukraine, the private military company “Wagner” and its founder, a businessman close to Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, began to recruit prisoners into their ranks and send them to war. Convicts who agreed to take part in hostilities had to spend six months on the front line, they were forbidden to retreat and surrender under the threat of execution. Those who remained alive were promised freedom. Thus, according to various estimates, 50 to 70 thousand fighters were recruited into the PMC. According to Prigozhin, 32,000 of them returned and were pardoned for their participation in hostilities.

In February of this year, PMC “Wagner” stopped recruiting prisoners – this was taken up by the Ministry of Defense of Russia. In September, the agency announced plans to put all those held in Russian prisons on a “special military record.”