The Wagner group claims the recruitment of a young Zambian who died in Ukraine

The Russian paramilitary group Wagner admitted on Tuesday, November 29 that a Zambian student recruited in prison had been killed in Ukraine.

AP - Dmitry Lovetsky

Text by: Anissa El Jabri Follow

3 mins

Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda would have benefited from the deal proposed by Evguéni Prigogine several months ago in Russia: release from prison in return for an engagement in the conflict in Ukraine.

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From our special correspondent,

Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda, 23, had started a prison sentence in the suburbs of Moscow.

According to the Zambian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had requested an official explanation from Russia on November 14, the young man “

”.

The Russian response to the request from the Zambian authorities was initially very vague.

"

", declared the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mikhail Bogdanov.

Two weeks later, the boss of the paramilitary group Wagner gives details of what would have happened to the young student, via his favorite means of communication: his Telegram channel.

This young man, who was serving a nine-year prison sentence, Yevgeny Prigogine says he met him "

", a few hundred kilometers from Moscow.

"

," he wrote.

"Why do you want to fight? After all, the chances of dying are quite high"

»

According to Wagner's boss, the answer

has been :

“

”.

This reported dialogue is in line with Russian diplomacy, which denounces “ 

 ”.

Dizzying drop in the prison population

Without any official green light, the Wagner group has been recruiting since this summer directly in Russian prisons.

A little over a year ago, a scandal shook Russia after the publication of videos of beatings, torture and rape behind bars.

Several officials had been dismissed, including the director of the prison administration.

►

A survey made public on Sunday, November 20 by the online media Mediazona notes that in two months, the number of men in Russian prisons has decreased by 23,000 people, from a total of 349,000 in August.

This sudden and brutal drop is " 

 ", says the newspaper Mediazona.

This media classified as a "foreign agent" indicates that these are the figures of the prison administration.

They concern detainees under all types of deprivation of liberty regimes, from “general” to “strict”.

The decrease concerns only convicted prisoners;

nothing has particularly changed for pre-trial detention or in women's prisons.

Above all, this sudden reflux of the male population behind bars is to be compared with those due to exceptional events.

This is the case of the spring 2015 amnesty, decided on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War: 15,000 prisoners were released.

Or that of the period of the first wave of Covid-19 in 2020, when there were far fewer convictions by the courts: 17,000 fewer people behind bars.

Recruitment to fight in Ukraine

None of this in 2022. The only explanation put forward by Mediazona: the recruitment of convicts for the front.

But, apart from these figures for the drop in the prison population, no official information is available: they are all "classified", including for the families of prisoners.

Wagner, for his part, promises pardon for a prisoner after six months of combat.

However, in Russia, any pardon depends on a decree of the president.

Last October, Federation Council members Andrei Klishas and Olga Kovitidi drafted a bill on pardons for prisoners who take part in hostilities, but there are currently no plans to have it discussed by parliamentarians.

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