The Private Military Company “Wagner” recruited at least 1 500 prisoners in Russian colonies to participate in the war against Ukraine.
The Russian publication "Verstka" writes about this.
Since the end of July, dozens of convicts and their relatives began to inform human rights defenders about the visits of recruiters to colonies of general, strict and special regimes. The human rights organization “Russia Behind Bars” ("Rus Sidyashchaya") reported that approximately 700 prisoners from Yaroslavl oblast, 400 from Ryazan oblast, almost 270 from Tula oblast, 250 people from Arkhangelsk; approximately 130 people from Komi, as well as at least 72 people from the Pskov oblast and less than 40 prisoners from St. Petersburg have agreed to go to Ukraine as part of the PMC “Wagner”.
The newspaper writes that "recruiters" are most interested in criminals convicted of murder and robbery. The selected are taken in groups to the colony in Rostov-on-Don, where a training camp is organized. According to “Russia Behind Bars”, the first group of prisoners who visited this colony left for the war zone on July 20.