In Russia, the worrying return of prisoners recruited by Wagner from the front

Recruited in the summer of 2022 by the paramilitary group Wagner, the first common law prisoners who fought in the Donbass are beginning to return to Russia, crowned with their new status as "war heroes".

The independent media in exile Holod reports in particular the case of Stanislav Bogdanov, 35, sentenced to 23 years in prison for having massacred Olga Pavlova's brother with fists and dumbbells.

The latter explains that she was disgusted when she discovered the release of her brother's murderer in a video featuring militiamen who had all lost a leg or an arm, accompanied by the boss of the paramilitary group, Evgueni Prigojine.

"In my situation, I could not have dreamed of better [...]. I had just spent 10 years in prison and I still had 13 to do", explains in this video dating from October, Stanislav Bogdanov, sitting in a sofa on the roof of a Black Sea hotel.

"You were a criminal, as they say, but now you are a war hero," replied Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Asked by Holod, Stanislav Bogdanov claims to have spent only eight days on the front.

Deployed in the Luhansk region at the end of July, he was hit by a shell on August 8 and was then reportedly awarded military decorations and an amnesty certificate.

It is difficult to know what Russian public opinion really thinks of these returns to the country.

Independent media Meduza reports mixed reactions on social media to the Stanislav Bogdanov case, with some netizens calling him a "hero", others worrying about the return to civilian life of hardened criminals.

80% loss in the ranks of prisoners

Another emblematic example: that of Alexandre Tioutine, of which the Russian independent media, Novaya Gazeta, found the trace.

His case had hit the headlines in Russia.

Arrested in 2018 while planning the murder of his niece, the investigation revealed that he had already ordered the assassination of a collaborator but also that of his wife and his children aged 11 and 15.

Recruited in July, he was released then would have joined the seaside town of Antalya in Turkey, before being seen in Saint Petersburg.

Like the other Russian prisoners sent to the front, he was promised release in exchange for a six-month commitment in Ukraine.

Evgueni Prigojine, who himself spent nine years in prison during the Soviet era for common law offenses, went to several penal colonies to convince the detainees.

“Who can get you out of prison when you have ten years left to do?”, he explains in a video published in September 2022. “There are only two people who can get you out of there: Allah or God , and it will be in a coffin. I can get you out alive, although that won't always be the case."

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Attracted by the promise of a new life and a monthly salary of 200,000 rubles, about $2,900, as well as the payment of $73,000 to their families in the event of death on the battlefield, many prisoners have accepted Prigozhin's offer.

But very few have returned from Ukraine.

Of the 50,000 detainees recruited by Wagner, "10,000 are currently fighting on the front because the others have been killed, wounded, have deserted or surrendered", said the director of the NGO Russia Behind Bars earlier this week. which defends the rights of prisoners.

According to Olga Romanova, desertion cases are a major problem for Wagner.

Some even managed to return armed to Russia.

In early December, a deserter from the private militia was notably arrested after firing a Kalashnikov at Russian police near the border town of Novoshakhtinsk.

Feeding the Wagner Machine

For several weeks, Evgueni Prigojine, who is at the head of the "Media Patriot" holding group, bringing together several information sites, has been communicating regularly through videos on these "heroes" returning from the hell of Soledar or Bakhmout.

After the publication of many stories and testimonies revealing the low value placed on the lives of his men, "the challenge is first to convince future recruits that Evgueni Prigojine keeps his word", writes the newspaper Le Monde.

This communication would therefore above all be intended to continue to feed the Wagner machine, which has become a central part of the Russian military system.

These videos, in which the billionaire Prigojine shows himself perfectly at ease in the midst of his soldiers, would also contribute to forging the image of a frank man and close to the people, while many lend him political ambitions.

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In reality, it is impossible to know how many of these "prisoner-mercenaries" were released after serving in Ukraine and whether they were actually pardoned.

In Russia, only a presidential decree can grant an amnesty to a person condemned by justice and the Kremlin, recently questioned on this sensitive question, prefers to kick in touch.

Quoted by RIA Novosti in early January, Eva Merkacheva, a member of the Human Rights Council, an advisory body attached to the Russian presidency, said that Vladimir Putin had secretly pardoned dozens of detainees in July. , even before their deployment in Ukraine.

Faced with the criticisms and worries of certain Russians, Prigojine has no scruples.

On his Telegram channel, he assures that a "murderer on a battlefield is worth three, four of these young boys just weaned from their mother's milk. However, among these boys, there is your son, your father and your husband", argues the boss of Wagner.

If both Russians and Ukrainians still refuse to disclose reliable results, the Norwegian army estimated this week that 180,000 Russian soldiers had lost their lives or had been injured since February 24, 2022, 100,000 on the Ukrainian side.

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