Moscow depends on volunteers as no general conscription has been declared to pay the ranks of its armed forces fighting in Ukraine
Volunteers are being sought among prisoners in Russian prisons to fight in the war being waged by the Moscow in neighboring Ukraine, according to human rights activists.
Suspects and defendants are being recruited with the promise that, in return, authorities will drop criminal charges, the agency said in a Facebook post. Olga Romanovaa Russian civil rights activist based in Berlin, citing examples from detention centers in the Moscow region.
“But I think the same thing is starting to happen everywhere,” says Romanova, an expert on the rights of prisoners in Russia.
Moscow is dependent on volunteers as no general conscription has been declared to pay the ranks of its armed forces fighting in Ukraine as part of the invasion that began in February.
The fact that in many areas officials are putting up advertisements on the streets calling on people to fight in the war may mean that there is a shortage of personnel at the front, notes the German Agency. Cities and regions of Russia are currently forming their own battalions.
In the Russian judicial system, almost all arraignments result in a guilty verdict, meaning that suspects and defendants appear to be forced to choose between going to war or going to prison.
The founder of Gulaga.net, a program created to combat violence in Russian prisons, Vladimir Osechkin, confirmed prison recruitment practices from France, where he lives in exile. He stated that there are indications that this practice is practiced in St. Petersburg, Ryazan, Tver and Bryansk.
Russian media have reported since July that many of the country’s prisons are looking for volunteers, according to the website Meduza, which said mercenary company Wagner was recruiting convicts.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wanted Kremlin businessman and Wagner supporter, personally recruited volunteers in prisons, the Mediazona website reported.
According to reports, the prisoners are promised a monthly salary of 100,000 rubles (1,625 euros) as well as bonuses, payments to their families in the event of their death and amnesty.
RES-EMP
Read the News today and get the latest news. Follow us on Google News and be the first to learn all the news from Skai.gr.
