More than 28,000 violent prisoners including murderers and
rapists have been freed from jails to fight for the Russian army
in Ukraine, it has been claimed.
The scheme to pardon
prisoners in return for six months’ service for mad Vlad’s war
has so far led to the release of more than five percent of the entire male jail
population in Russia.
Yet the system is being abused
with some “wealthy inmates” paying bribes to buy their way out of prison
without going to fight, it is claimed.
This has so far netted the
team of a close Putin crony along with criminal and prison bosses some £33
million, alleges a new report.
The astonishing 28,000 figure
– revealed by the independent Volya Telegram channel – is far higher than previous
estimates, and despite the abuse, most inmates are given perfunctory training and then sent into battle.
A video this week showed 400
in a dozen prison vans on their way to training then the war.
The man behind the
jailbird-to-fighter scheme is Putin’s ‘chef’ Yevgeny Prigozhin, 61, according
to reports.
He was seen this week in a
speech in a bleak Mordovian penal colony offering inmates a deal in which they
sign-up for six months after which they are officially pardoned by Putin, and
free.
But Priogozhin warned they would
be shot in summary executions if they deserted.
Prisoners who opt to fight for
Putin are sent to the Wagner private army, “controlled” by Prigozhin, which
fulfils military orders of the Russian defence ministry in Ukraine.
