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Russia hangs freedom on prisoners if they fight in Ukraine. Many are taking up the deadly game

Russia hangs freedom on prisoners if they fight in Ukraine.  Many are taking up the deadly game

 


During a month-long investigation, CNN spoke with prisoners caught in Russia’s newest recruitment scheme, along with their relatives and friends. Activists believe hundreds are being held in dozens of prisons across Russia — from murderers to drug offenders. Some were even taken from the prison where a high-profile American imprisoned in Russia, Paul Whelan, is being held. His brother David said in a statement in July that he had heard that ten volunteers had left IK17 in Mordovia for the front line in Ukraine.

Dozens of chat messages between the relatives, reviewed by CNN, detail the tempting rewards offered to fight in Ukraine, where the risk of death is high. Recent Western estimates suggest that up to 75,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded since the invasion began (a claim the Kremlin has denied).

An inmate spoke to CNN from his cramped prison cell, a cat crawled across bunk beds and a fan strapped to the top of an old television set tried to cool the air between heavily barred windows. Jailed for years for drug offenses, he spoke on condition of anonymity using a contraband smartphone — fairly common in Russia’s prison system — to describe the conditions on offer.

“They will accept murderers, but not rapists, pedophiles, extremists or terrorists,” he said. “Amnesty or pardon for six months is offered. Someone talks about 100,000 rubles a month, another 200,000. Everything is different.” He said the offer was made when unidentified men, believed to be part of a private military contractor firm, came to the prison in the first half of July and that acceptance into the program would lead to two weeks of training in Russia’s Rostov region. southern. While he had two years of military service, he said recruiters didn’t seem to insist on military experience.

“In my case, if it’s true, then I’m for it,” said the prisoner. “It could make a real difference to me: go to jail for almost a decade, or get out in six months if you’re lucky. But that’s if you’re lucky. I just want to get home to the kids as soon as possible.” life possible. If this option is possible, then why not?”

The inmate said 50 inmates had already been selected for recruitment and quarantined at the prison, but he had heard 400 had applied. Rights activists working in the Russian prison system said that since early July they had been inundated with reports from across Russia from distraught relatives worried about the fate of their prisoners.

“In the last three weeks [in July]there is a very big wave of this project to recruit thousands of Russian prisoners and send them to war,” said Vladimir Osechkin, head of Gulagu.net, a prisoner advocacy group.

Osechkin said some were promised a payment to their families of five million rubles ($82,000) if they died, but all financial rewards may never be honored. “There is no guarantee, no real contract. It is illegal,” he said.

“It could make a real difference to me: being in prison for almost a decade, or getting away in six months if you’re lucky. But that’s if you’re lucky.”

An inmate who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity

Some of the inmates and their family members seemed eager for recruitment to continue, Osechkin said, echoing responses from some inmate families seen by CNN.

Osechkin speculated that the prisoners were effectively used as bait, to draw the fire of Ukrainian positions and enable the Russian regular army to attack with precision. “They go first, and when the Ukrainian army sees them, they strike. Then the Russian soldiers see where the Ukrainians are and bomb the place.”

CNN reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian Penitentiary Service (FSIN) for comment on allegations that prisoners are being recruited to fight in Ukraine. Neither answered.

When Russia is the only way out of a war zone, Ukrainian refugees must hide their hatred

While recruitment is in its early days, the first reports have emerged among family members of wounded prisoners hospitalized in the Russian-backed separatist Luhansk region.

CNN has seen text messages exchanged between relatives of prisoners already sent to the front lines. A woman tells how she contacted her husband, who was lying wounded in a Luhansk hospital. The wife said only three prisoners from her husband’s ten-member unit were still alive. CNN is aware of the identity of the injured prisoner, but has not been able to confirm his hospitalization as separatist medical facilities are shrouded in secrecy.

Other messages between relatives also detailed the quiet desperation of the prisoners, caught in a Russian justice system where 99% of cases brought to trial result in conviction and corruption weighs heavily on an overburdened penal system. This month, a prisoner sent a message to his brother on WhatsApp about his decision to go.

Prisoner

IM going. But don’t tell your mother either way. It’s better that way. Otherwise she will be very worried and will react to any news.

Brother

That’s it, we will react to any news. If you tell us where you are, what you’re doing, we’ll be more relaxed because at least we’ll know where to look.

Prisoner

I don’t even know. Everything will be decided by the facts.

Prisoner

I know that we will go to the 12th prison, and once we gathered there in Rostov for 2 weeks, where there is a center, and then in the territory.

Prisoner

I’m ready to go. Lots of options [in life], but now there is only one. So I agreed.

Brother

You can work in prison, read books, get qualifications in IT or languages.

Prisoner

I’m already too old for that sh*t.

Moscow’s manpower options have dimmed during more than five months of a clumsy and grueling occupation. Russian President Vladimir Putin initially stated that no conscripts had been deployed to the war, before his defense ministry admitted they had withdrawn some from the front lines after deploying them in an apparent error. The Kremlin has said there will be no general mobilization in Russia, perhaps out of fear that the policy would prove unpopular, especially if widespread losses across the population did not significantly change the dynamics of the battlefield.

The White House says Russia is planning to falsify evidence to frame Ukrainian forces for a prison attack

Prison recruitment is, activists and inmates said, under the auspices of private military contractor Wagner, which is not subject to the Russian military’s ban on hiring convicts. The prisoners have not shared any copies of their contracts with their relatives or activists, so the exact terms or the employer remain unclear. Wagner, which operates globally and is run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a man known as Putin’s boss, is Russia’s most ubiquitous military contractor. Prigozhin denies connections with Wagner.

The lack of clarity, along with the silence of their loved ones, only adds to the relatives’ anxieties. Oksana, the half-sister of a Russian prisoner who was offered the posting, said his mother had initially been keen to get paid by her son’s service but, after he disappeared from their messaging apps, he was beside himself with worry.

“These are the least protected part of the population. Putin said no recruits would be sent, but they were sent. With convicts, it will be very difficult to find out that they were sent.”

Oksana, the half-sister of a prisoner who had been offered delivery

“We know he was in Rostov Oblast,” Oksana said, adding that he had claimed he was in another prison’s factory. “He called her on a new WhatsApp number on July 10 and asked her to send a copy of her passport so that he can get his salary,” she said. That meant he was less likely to be in jail, she said, since an inmate’s wages from prison work are usually paid into their account.

“I am in contact with many relatives and they all have the same scenario: Send passport details. No contact,” she said. “These are the least protected part of the population. Putin said no recruits would be sent, but they were sent. With convicts, it will be very difficult to find out that they were sent.” Oksana’s name has been changed due to security concerns.

At the end of July, the mother received a message from another new number, written familiarly in her son’s broken Russian. He insisted he was healthy and fine, but gave no details of his whereabouts. There is still some time left, but it is going fast”, he wrote. “I’ll call you when I can.”

The mother was later called by a person introducing herself as an “accountant” who promised to bring her son’s salary in cash a week later.

Sources

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2/ https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/09/europe/russia-recruits-prisoners-ukraine-war-cmd-intl/index.html

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