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RIGA, Latvia — Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly pardoned dozens of convicts even before they were sent to war in Ukraine, a member of Russia’s Human Rights Council has said — pointing out there were legal flaws in the recruitment strategy used jailed criminals promised that their sentences would be lifted only after they completed military service.
Putin’s decrees were issued in secret to legally release the prisoners and avoid publicly disclosing their names, which would normally be done when a presidential pardon is granted, said Eva Merkacheva, a member of the Human Rights Council, which is an advisory body in the early 2000s Founded years ago by Putin and recently reorganized to eliminate voices critical of the Kremlin.
“All these decrees are secret and we cannot see them, but that explains why the Federal Penitentiary Service calmly released people,” Merkacheva told state-run RIA Novosti news agency. “The presidential decree pardoning convicts who took part in the special operation constitutes a state secret because it allows these individuals to be identified.”
The convicts were apparently sent to some of the most dangerous hot spots on the front lines, and many were killed. About two dozen of them, originally recruited by the Wagner mercenary group in circumvention of Russian laws, have now returned home but are likely to return to the front lines in a matter of weeks, according to Russia Behind Bars, a prisoner rights group.
The two dozen convicts, who survived six months of intense fighting, were part of the first recruitment wave of what is estimated to be several hundred, an effort led since last summer by Wagner and the group’s financier, St Petersburg executive Yevgeniy Prigozhin.
Fierce fighting rages in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region as Ukrainian forces battle Russian troops and Wagner Group mercenaries. (Video: The Washington Post)
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Citing relatives of the convicts, Merkacheva said the pardons were signed in early July, around the same time the first men to accept mercenary contracts were transported to Ukraine.
When asked to confirm the secret pardons, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to give a direct answer, telling reporters, “You know that a pardon can only be granted by a presidential decree…performed in strict accordance with the law.” can be.”
Prigozhin, himself a former convict, personally visited several Russian prison colonies last year and offered recruits lucrative salaries and dangling pardons on the condition that they serve—and survive—half a year as part of shock troops, infantry units charged with the leadership of Offenses are tasked and usually suffer heavy casualties. Recruits were often sent into battle with poor equipment and little to no training.
The prisoners served as reinforcements for the initial Russian force in Ukraine, which was exhausted by a series of early combat failures.
The United States estimates that Wagner now has 50,000 troops stationed in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts recruited from prisons. This assessment is consistent with data collected by Russia Behind Bars, which tracks prisoners’ involvement in the war.
“Russia behind bars” and other rights groups have been alarmed at the moral and legal implications of Moscow tapping into such an unorthodox reserve of workers. In many cases, this meant handing over high-powered weapons to prisoners charged with violent crimes who had spent years in a brutal Russian penitentiary system – creating a security risk and greater risk of battlefield atrocities in Ukraine, the advocacy groups said.
Furthermore, the use of convicts without a legal basis is a mockery of the justice system.
Since mercenary service is still officially illegal in Russia, it was unclear whether there were any guarantees that the fighters would receive what they were promised.
The vulnerable position of the former inmates also apparently allowed Wagner to take part in extrajudicial executions of convicts who had violated a set of rules established by Prigozhin, which banned alcohol and drugs and prescribed the death penalty for desertion.
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Despite their newfound freedom, the prisoners are expected to return to Ukraine after a few weeks of rest.
“They all got ‘dumb phones,'” said Olga Romanova, director of Russia Behind Bars. “After 45 days it rings and you call back.” Romanova added: “They signed all the renewal contracts. Anyone who didn’t sign it died at the front.”
Romanova said the fighters had no choice but to sign, and that the ex-convicts were promised that Wagner would no longer use them as shock troops, but would instead assign them to an unnamed special forces unit tasked with pursuing Ukrainian ” sabotage and reconnaissance groups”.
“The decree may be secret, so it appears that they are secretly pardoned in bulk before being taken out of jails,” Romanova said, adding that keeping these orders secret could complicate the pardon process since convicts technically read the decree cannot show to the police or law enforcement officers.
“This is a lousy piece of paper because without the presidential decree itself, this cannot work and nobody saw it,” she said. “But now, of course, anything is possible.”
Last week, RIA Novosti published a video in which Prigozhin congratulated two dozen convicts on completing their contracts.
“You ended your contract with honor and dignity,” the video reads. “Don’t drink too much, don’t do drugs, don’t rape women.”
In the video, Prigozhin then asks the men about their plans for the near future. “To come back and finish what we started,” the group replies in unison.
In another video released last week by Prigozhin-affiliated RIA Fan website, the mercenary chief can be seen presenting medals to another group of several dozen wounded Wagner fighters recovering in the Black Sea resort town of Anapa and promises pardons. In the clip, several fighters thank Prigozhin for “changing their lives” and say that they intend to return to the Wagner company.
“If you are alive and well, everything is fine, legs and arms are in place: you either return to us or go home, but do not cause trouble,” Prigozhin said. “The police should treat you with respect. There is a pardon, a paper, an acknowledgment from the head of the republic and a medal “for bravery”. There are no exceptions yet…those who can qualify as one are not with us here.”
The Russian-language news agency Agentstvo identified several of the militants in the video, most of whom have served time on murder, robbery or fraud charges. Among them was Dmitry Karyagin, who killed his 87-year-old grandmother, a war veteran, and stole money she received from the sale of her apartment, Agentsvo reported.
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Wagner has become a key force in Ukraine. It was credited with key strategic victories over the summer and was openly praised by Russian state media, putting an end to years of open secrecy about the group’s existence.
Most recently, Wagner forces claimed to have seized an area near the town of Soledar in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Russian military commentators and Prigozhin have encouraged this feat in anticipation that Wagnerian forces may soon capture the nearby town of Bakhmut.
On Monday, Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrsky, commander of Ukraine’s Ground Forces, visited troops fighting to defend those two cities and said Wagner’s achievements were exaggerated.
“The enemy again made a desperate attempt to storm the city of Soledar in different directions,” Syrsky said, adding, “The enemy suffered significant casualties and retreated again.”
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in a recent report that Prigozhin “will continue to use both confirmed and fabricated successes by the Wagner group in Soledar and Bakhmut to establish the Wagner group as the only Russian To promote force in Ukraine able to generate tangible gains.”
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