How Prigozhin’s criminal soldiers frighten the Russian population

Thousands of former prisoners who volunteered for the war in Ukraine are now returning to everyday life in Russia. “They have become true patriots of their country,” boasts Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner’s private Russian army, which recruited convicted criminals from the country’s prisons last year.

They would serve six months – and in return they would be given their freedom. “More than 5,000 have fulfilled their contract,” says Prigozhin. He does not mention the number of people who did not survive the war. But he sees them all as heroes: the dead and the survivors.

The Moscow Kremlin is not talking about the pardon of President Vladimir Putin needed for such deployment of prisoners in the war zone. state secret! However, some decrees of the Kremlin chief about this are published by the families of those affected.

Hero funerals for ex-criminals

Putin’s confidant Prigozhin, on the other hand, is tackling the issue aggressively, which is not without controversy in Russia. Neither Prigozchin’s mercenary army nor the ability of the Wagner boss to go in and out of Russian prisons has been legalized. But the warlord, who is currently focused on capturing the strategically important city of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, has repeatedly made concessions to his private army.

The fighters are now on par with the regular Russian armed forces in many respects. Prigozhin, 61, also pushed for heroic funerals for former criminals killed in the war when local authorities refused to pay them such final respects. There is sometimes a lot of resistance in the communities, especially because the murders of some perpetrators are not forgotten.

For Prigozhin, on the other hand, there is much to be said for his war model, including with convicts. He claims that battlefield experience would discourage many offenders from committing new crimes. “They value life, they want to love their country, they don’t want to go back to prison.” It is estimated that at times about 50,000 prisoners fought in the Wagner ranks.

Prigozhin mocks the Russian elite

Prigozhin no longer recruits criminals. He runs recruiting centers around the country to recruit clean volunteers for the war. The fact that ex-convicts are not welcome says a lot about his country and the elite there: Russian bureaucrats prefer to live in an ideal world. Ex-convicts also have no chance of becoming full members of society because of the network of relationships and “toad licking” that is prevalent in these circles, he says.

“The system doesn’t give them a chance to return to normal life,” he says of the pardon convicts who fought in the war. The battle would have cleared their debt to the country. Yet the elite see this kind of “heroism” as poison.

She doesn’t want convicted criminals in her ranks. And for the sake of history, the state wants to convince everyone that clean generals fight in Ukraine – “and not simple Russian guys, including those from prisons who won victories in this war.”

One killed again after returning

There has long been fear among segments of the population that those discharged from military service will commit new crimes. Women protest that bandits, rapists and murderers will be released. “They are now becoming war criminals,” says the feminist anti-war movement, for example. “Their pardons are a direct threat to the safety and lives of the women and their children.” The movement warns that war trauma increases the risk of violence.

Prigozhin also had to witness that one of his protégés, who had been convicted of murder, after returning to his native region first smashed a car window with an ax and then murdered an 85-year-old woman in the neighboring town. The man had only served two of his 14 years in prison when Wagner’s boss hired him for the war last year. Wagner bears responsibility for his fighters, Prigoshin admits. “We heal them, fit them with prostheses, pay everything we have to pay.”

Rehabilitation in a posh suburb of Moscow?

Eva Merkachova, who works on the Human Rights Council set up by Putin, believes Russia needs a rehabilitation system because the “often already deranged” criminals now suffer from war trauma. A war medal will not help them settle in life, find work. Until now, Russia has had no system to prepare criminals for a life of freedom.

Prigozhin apparently also sees the need for action in dealing with the traumatized returnees from the war. The businessman now wants to give up his own piece of land in the popular Moscow suburb of Barvich for the construction of a psychological rehabilitation center for war veterans, including ex-prisoners.

In addition, in a letter with architectural drawings, he asked the governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov, to approve the construction of the “Rubka” center. He does not tolerate objections from authorities. (t online)