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Wagner Group recruiting convicts to join militia – with promise of a free coffin

Yevgeny Prigozhin - Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
Yevgeny Prigozhin - Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

The Kremlin insider known as “Putin’s chef” personally toured Russian prisons to recruit 1,000 convicts to fight for his Wagner Group of mercenaries in Ukraine, a Russian opposition website has reported.

Together with the charity Russian Sitting which supports families of convicts, the Verstka news website said that the Wagner Group had persuaded up to 1,000 Russian criminals from 17 prisons to sign up to fight in Ukraine in return for a salary and a presidential pardon.

“Three prisoners told human rights activists that businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin was allegedly coming to the colony,” it reported. Verstka quoted a spokesman for Mr Prigozhin as saying that he had not been involved in the recruitment drive.

‘Sex offenders normally not selected’

Inmates who spoke to activists from Russia Sitting said that physical condition and an allegiance to “defend the Motherland” were Wagner recruiters’ top criteria.

“Firstly, recruiters show interest in those convicted for murder and robbery,” Verstka reported, quoting prisoners. “Those inmates in prison for drug and sex offences are normally not selected.”

After volunteering, the potential criminal recruits are also given an immediate physical test to see if they can cope with the strains of life as a mercenary.

“Wagner recruiters refuse elderly people and those with serious illnesses. To check, they are asked to do push-ups on the floor, sit-ups and perform other physical exercises,” inmates told Verstka.

Only then are they sent from their prison to basic training and then the front-line in Donbas, eastern Ukraine.

But Russia Sitting has warned inmates and their families that this is not the easy way out of a prison sentence that they may be looking for.

On its website, it said that all the promises made by Wagner and other Russian mercenary groups called Shield, Slavic Corps, Patriot and Redut are legally impossible to enforce and that they should not be trusted.

Wagner offers recruits a 200,000 rouble (£2,700) per month salary, a presidential pardon and a so-called “coffin payment” to the family of the mercenary if he is killed.

“We can advise relatives, if possible, to convey the risks to their loved ones and try to dissuade them from accepting the offers of mercenary recruiters,” said Russian Sitting.

Mr Prigozhin is a Russian oligarch who earned his nickname because he was once pictured in a chef’s uniform serving dinner to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Some of his various companies were also restaurants and catering companies.

The FBI has an arrest warrant out for Mr Prigozhin, 61, who is accused of meddling in the US electoral system between 2014 and 2018. The FBI said that Mr Prigozhin organised his St Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency to manipulate various social media channels to boost support for Donald Trump during the 2016 US Presidential Election.

Mr Prigozhin has also gained notoriety for setting up the Wagner Group, which the Kremlin has used to do its dirty work abroad since its creation in 2014.

It has a reputation for brutality and human rights abuses and has been used to prop up various Kremlin allies in Africa and the Middle East, most notably Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator.

Western intelligence has said that the Russian army has suffered 75,000 casualties, dead or injured, since it invaded Ukraine and is relying heavily on Wagner to plug gaps in its front-line units and take on extra battle responsibilities.

“This is a significant change from the previous employment of the group since 2015, when it typically undertook missions distinct from overt, large-scale regular Russian military activity,” the Ministry of Defence said.

But the extra workload and responsibility have also come with a high casualty rate, forcing Wagner to recruit openly for the first time on roadside billboards and the internet, as well as, more controversially, targeting prisoners.

Although the Ministry of Defence has previously highlighted the Wagner recruitment drive in Russian prisons it hadn’t said how successful this drive had been or just how much effort Wagner had put into it.

Listen to James Kilner and the Telegraph's Defence and Security Editor Dominic Nicholls talk more about the Wagner Group on The Telegraph's daily Ukraine podcast using the audio player below.