Brutal Wagner army now recruiting in boxing clubs in Moscow – we visited one

An icy path and a dozen steps lead to the « Gruscha » (pear). A red-brown iron door, a light-colored wooden hallway, two water dispensers. In the back of the room, 15 men are warming up for their early morning boxing workout, their slippers lying in front of the blue mats in the hallway.

“Grusha” is a boxing club not far from the seat of the Russian government. There is a monastery around the corner, on the playground opposite the municipal workers are cutting away the icy snow mountains. Someone throws their rubbish in the bins opposite the club.

Someone who is late rushes through the door to the dressing room with his shoulder bag. Training takes place here up to nine times a day, the first one starts at 7 am, in the afternoon children from the age of seven learn Thai boxing and kickboxing. The backyard club is as stealthy as it is monstrous.

They are the butchers in Putin’s ranks

A few days ago, Jewgeny Prigozhin, a businessman loyal to the Kremlin, said he had set up new recruitment centers in 42 Russian cities. His mercenaries are considered the most brutal fighters in Putin’s “special operation” in Ukraine, as butchers their boss recruited as volunteers in penal colonies across the country.

In addition, there were sanctions and a kind of license from Prigozhin to do anything with prisoners in the Ukraine. “Torture, humiliate, cut throat – I don’t care,” he allegedly told Chelyabinsk prisoners, adding that any of his combatants who “take the wrong turn” will be shot on the spot.

Quite a few people who have been forgotten by society used the pointless struggle as an opportunity to somehow feel useful and escape their own desolate existence in Russia’s rigidly hierarchical penal system, which is based on the Stalinist camp system.

Fewer and fewer prisoners want to go to the front

The “Wagnerovtsy”, as they are called in Russia, penetrate the center of the hard-fought Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, and the high losses are irrelevant to Prigozhin. However, rumor soon spread behind the prison walls how mercilessly the new Wagnerians were burned.

The number of volunteers from the penal colonies steadily declined. Prigozhin then announced a “complete halt” to his recruitment among the Russian convicts – and a new strategy at the same time. Now he searches in residential areas, in schools, even in sports clubs like “Gruscha”.

“Yes, we have put the future fighters in the right place,” says the receptionist in black. She gives a piece of pink paper. “Write,” she says in her soft voice, dictating a phone number. Information would only be given by telephone, that was all she could say. The broad-shouldered men who wrap their striped bandages around their hands are also silent. “Outside near the garbage cans, the reception is much better,” the woman in black shouts.

Minimum requirement: 50 pushups

Igor answers the phone, politely too. The future fighter must introduce himself personally, he can prove himself next to the club, he explains. The municipal training and advice center for civil protection and calamities is located in the same building where “Gruscha” is located. The red-painted metal door is closed, the sign says business hours are Tuesday and Thursday, and there’s a video camera on the corner.

Igor assures that he will come at the desired times of the “applicant” and “assess” him. The minimum requirement: 50 pushups. “If you are ready for the front and I give you permission, you can go today. We’ll get the train ticket.”

It goes to the Krasnodar region – in the south of Russia – for a three-week training camp, says Igor. For the training weeks there is 40,000 rubles (equal to almost 500 francs), later a monthly salary of 240,000 rubles (almost 3,000 francs). That’s a lot of money for Russian income standards. “So bring your passport and be in good shape,” advises Igor. “I’m sure everything will be fine.” Down in the club, the men are banging on the pears.