Prisoners are promised freedom: For weeks there have been reports that Moscow is also recruiting fighters in prisons due to a shortage of personnel at the front. Now a video is causing a stir.
More than six months after the invasion of Ukraine, a video that allegedly shows the Kremlin-affiliated oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin recruiting prison inmates as a fighter caused a stir in Russia.
The video, shared by supporters of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and some media outlets, shows a man appearing in front of prisoners and promising them release if they commit to serving as mercenaries in Ukraine for six months. However, he warns that the war is more difficult than in Chechnya. At the same time, he announces that prisoners are already deployed on the Russian side. “The first prisoners who fought with me were there on June 1 when the Wuhlehirsk thermal power plant was stormed. 40 people from Piter (St. Petersburg), criminals, recidivists,” he says.
Prigozhin’s company Konkord did not want to comment on the authenticity of the video, but said according to the state news agency Ria Novosti: “We can confirm that the man in the video looks a lot like Yevgeny Viktorovich.” The man supports the Russian “special operation” and is an excellent speaker, it was said. In the past, the media had repeatedly reported that Prigozchin was to finance the notorious mercenary unit “Wagner”.
For weeks there have been reports that Russia is also recruiting fighters in prisons due to the increasing shortage of personnel at the front. The Kremlin has so far ruled out general mobilization in Russia – probably also for image reasons. The war, which has now been going on for more than six months, is still called a “special military operation” in Moscow. There has been no information on losses for months, and the Russian general staff has described the most recent retreat in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv as a “regrouping”.
Video of the alleged appearance of Yevgeny Prigozhin (Russian)
Source: Stern
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