Wagner Group founder announces to have ceased recruiting convicts
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) has announced that the recruitment of convicts to the recognized criminal private military company has now completely stopped. He never specified what caused such a decision.
Source: Prigozhin's press office with reference to his answer to the question about the fact that there has been no recruitment for more than a month, and Prigozhin himself is not going to penal colonies to recruit inmates.
Quote: "Yes, indeed, it is so. The recruitment of convicts for the Wagner [Group] has been stopped completely. To those who work for us now, all obligations have been fulfilled."
Details: At the same time, Prigozhin did not explain why recruitment to his private army has been stopped.
Note: The Wagner Group first appeared in 2013-2014. Wagner mercenaries have been active in a number of countries where Russia had important interests – Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, and Ukraine. Wagnerites are reported to be committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, and are known for their brutality.
After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Wagner representatives took part in massacres of civilians. Inmates from Russian prisons are recruited to the PMC, as are Ukrainians who had been imprisoned in the temporarily occupied territories. Prigozhin himself is often involved in recruitment, although it was not until September 2022 that he admitted to being behind the PMC.
Background:
- On 6 February, it was reported that recruiters from the Wagner Group Private Military Company (PMC) had begun to arrive at Russian penal colonies for the second time, revisiting the same locations where they previously recruited inmates to fight in Ukraine. The convicts the journalists talked to said that recruitment now takes place in a less solemn atmosphere: the prisoners are no longer lined up at the parade ground, and Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group’s founder, does not fly in by helicopter.
- The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine [Ukrainian Parliament] has recognised the Wagner Group as an international criminal organisation.
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