The Ministry of Defense continues to recruit convicts from penal colonies to fill the ranks of the Storm-Z unit
Authorities in the Krasnoyarsk region in Russia’s Far East plan to close several prisons this year amid a dwindling number of incarcerated people, prompted by the recruitment of people serving sentences for the war in Ukraine, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported, cited by Reuters.
The newspaper cited Merk Denisov, the human rights commissioner of the Krasnoyarsk region, who told the regional legislature that at least two local prisons would be closed due to “a large one-time reduction in the number of convicts in the context of the special military operation (in Ukraine) “.
Russia has been recruiting prisoners to fight on the front in Ukraine since 2022, when Yevgeny Prigozhin, the late head of the private military company Wagner, began touring penal colonies, offering convicts a pardon if they survived six months on the battlefield , notes Reuters.
Prigogine, who died in a plane crash shortly after leading a short-lived rebellion against Russian military leaders, had claimed to have recruited 50,000 prisoners to join the Wagner PMC. At the time, data released by Russia’s Penitentiary Service showed a sudden drop in the country’s prison population.
The Ministry of Defense continues to recruit convicts from penal colonies to fill the ranks of the “Storm-Z” unit, made up of recruited prisoners, notes Reuters.
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