So first round of dirty dozen squad got done their 'pennace' ,The story of the 'penal PMC' its quite intriguing, and it seems PMC Wagner has considerable clout with Putin and the penal battalion program is only really getting started.
Report by NGO Russia Behind Bars
Rumor has it that military recruitment in prisons is not voluntary. We have been monitoring the recruitment situation in penal colonies since the beginning of the war. Volunteers abound. Inmates are lining up to go to war. Their friends and relatives write: “Where do I apply for him to get recruited sooner?”
If we were to dig deeper into their motivation, we could conclude that there is an element of coercion. Russian prisons are notorious for torture, abuse, and humiliation. For many inmates, volunteering to go to war is a way out. Anything is better than the inside.
As for relatives, they are mostly after money. Eight out of nine questions we get deal with compensation. “Will they really get paid? When is the payday? Why haven’t they sent the contract? How much will he get if he is wounded? What if it's a serious injury?”
Promises were vague. Recruits signed a medley of papers, nothing standardized. Some recalled submitting consent to join the “DPR” police force. Some said their forms had Russia's Ministry of Defense header and included a checkbox “I agree to go to war in Ukraine”. Those who enlisted said they were promised early release. Or that there would be an amnesty. However, if they got killed in action, this would be considered as “shot during an escape attempt”.
They told us they’d donned camo, trained twenty hours a day, and ate dry rations on the go. They received training in mine clearance and – I’m not sure about the correct military term – storming? In a nutshell, former inmates got an express stormtrooper course, even though some of them had never done conscription service.
Further on, the relatives of some other missing inmates submitted inquiries to the FSIN and were told that the inmates had been transferred to IK-12 in the Rostov Region at their own request. “Go look for him there.”These penal colonies are being used as boot camps.
The carrots:
– A monthly income of 100,000 rubles (~$1,650) in cash and a 100,000-ruble bonus, to be paid to the recruit directly or to their family.
– 5 million rubles (~$82,300) to their relatives in the event of death. Several such compensations have already been paid out.
– Compensation for wounds received in action (the amount is not specified). Those seriously injured can expect to return home with their conviction annulled. We have not heard of such cases yet.
– In a few colonies, recruiters promised to reward acts of outstanding heroism by arranging the visit of the recruit’s mother or wife – who would arrive by plane, no less. Such fantasies do not require any comment.
– After six months of participation in the special operation (starting from the first combat experience, not the date of recruitment), inmates would walk free, have their criminal records expunged, and get the President’s pardon.
The sticks:
– Execution on the spot for attempted desertion or surrendering to the enemy. This is indirectly confirmed by the accounts of both recruits and Wagner mercenaries: former inmates are followed by an anti-retreat unit consisting of “seasoned fighters”.
– Execution on the spot for consuming drugs or alcohol.
– Execution on the spot for looting. (Interestingly, the long-time residents of occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions, with whom I often talk for work and just chat, have very fond memories of Igor Strelkov-Girkin for this particular habit of shooting looters on the spot without trial. My weak protestations about possible mistakes and the need for investigation and a fair trial were met with a shrug).
By the most careful estimates, private military companies (Wagner is only one example) have recruited around 5,000 inmates.(September 2022) Not all of them are fighting; some are still training, while others are waiting for their turn in penal colonies because there are more volunteers than needed. Some are already dead.
All that considering that PMCs have only processed the penitentiary institutions of the European part of Russia. Inmates have shared that Wagner agents or Prigozhin himself mentioned plans of recruiting 20,000 convicts, or even better, 50,000.
Will they succeed? They certainly will, if they venture further east, beyond the Urals and into Siberia.
A man who looks like Evgeny Prigozhin tells inmates: “I've promised the President I will win this war.”
It appears to be true. Indeed he has. And it had to be to the president(backing it),because no one else in Russia, even the Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev or the FSB director Alexander Bortnikov, not to mention such a small fish as the head of the FSIN, has the power to remove so many inmates from the legal environment.
Can you imagine? A helicopter owned by a private company lands in a restricted facility –a maximum-security or even a “special regime” prison, where there are no random people. Its passengers simply elbow the guards and the warden out in front of the inmates. They occupy the offices, grab personal files, and bring in the polygraph, which is an essential component of interviews, along with questions about the attitude to Ukraine.
Then they simply take some of the inmates away. Put them on a transport with nothing but a change of underwear and two packs of cigarettes. And that’s it. “You’ll be given all you need,” they say.
If I was in jail there I would probably volunteer too. I’m not the right class to get in a country club jail even here. If some $$$ actually goes to the family, it’s a done deal.