Human rights advocates claim that Russian jails are actively looking for volunteers to take part in Moscow's conflict with the neighboring Ukraine.
According to Olga Romanova, authorities were enlisting suspects and defendants with the promise that in return, they would have their criminal cases dropped. '
In a Facebook post, a Russian human rights activist residing in Berlin gave examples from pre-trial detention facilities near Moscow.
“But I think it has started everywhere,’’ said Romanova, a specialist on prisoners’ rights in Russia.
Moscow depends on volunteers as general conscription has not been introduced to fill the ranks of its armed forces fighting in Ukraine, in the invasion that began in February.
There may be a scarcity of personnel at the front if authorities are posting street advertisements seeking people to fight in the battle in many regions.
At the moment, cities and regions are creating their own battalions.
Since practically all indictments in the Russian judicial system result in guilty verdicts, suspects and defendants often looked to be offered the option of choosing between prison or war.
The recruitment techniques in jails were confirmed by Vladimir Ossetschkin, the exiled founder of Gulaga.net, an initiative designed to reduce violence in Russian prisons.
He said that St. Petersburg, Ryazan, Tver, and Bryansk had all reported seeing evidence of the practice.
Russian media have been reporting on the search for volunteers in the nation’s many penal camps since July, according to the Meduza website, which said Wagner mercenary group was recruiting convicts.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wanted Kremlin businessman and backer of Wagner, personally recruited volunteers in prison camps, the Mediazona website reported.
The prisoners were said to have been promised monthly pay of 100,000 roubles (1,625 dollars) along with bonuses, payments to their families in the event of death, and an amnesty.
