The Wagner mercenary group claims that 5,000 of the Russian ex-convicts who fought in the organization have been released
The head and founder of the Wagner mercenary group, Russian businessman Yevgeni Prigozhin, said Saturday that 5,000 Russian ex-convicts have already been pardoned after serving six months in Ukraine’s private militia.
It has been reported in recent days that many of the ex-convicts whom Wagner recruited to fight in Russia’s autumn offensive in Ukraine were due to be released these weeks after ending their six-month contract with the militia. After the Wagner group, which initially consisted mostly of veterans of the Russian armed forces, recruited tens of thousands of inmates last summer and offered them pardon for their crimes after six months of service in Ukraine. It is estimated that around 30,000 convicts were recruited. While it is true that many of them – almost half, according to estimates – died in the war, many are on the verge of returning to Russia. In Russia, even some concern has been reported about the return to their hometowns of dangerous criminals or veterans brutalized by the war.
“So far, more than 5,000 people have been pardoned after their contracts with Wagner ended,” Prigozhin wrote on his Telegram channel in response to a question from a media outlet about the wave of layoffs.
Furthermore, amid concerns about the return of these criminals, the businessman assures that only 0.31% of those previously pardoned have committed a crime upon their return. He claims this is a much lower rate (between a tenth and a twentieth) of the usual recidivism rate, though he doesn’t mention where he got that number from.
Prigozhin, himself a former convict, is a businessman who is very close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Nicknamed Putin’s chef for his catering company that served the Kremlin, he has played an important role in the war in Ukraine, initially admitting to being the creator of the Wagner militia, which are also active in other parts of the world operated, and then took on an important role in the offensive in eastern Ukraine. However, his relations with the Kremlin have recently deteriorated. After boasting about his men’s advances in Ukraine’s Donbass region, he came into conflict with the military leadership, whom he accused of treason for not providing him with enough ammunition.