35,000 prisoners have already been recruited as soldiers
Troops at the front in Ukraine have already been reinforced with male prisoners: as Russian prison rights activist Olga Romanova explained, 35,000 prisoners would have been released from prison early to go to war for Moscow. Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny witnessed the Wagner group’s recruitment efforts in the prison camp where he himself is serving time. “About 80-90 people agreed to go to war,” reported Navalny. Shortly after, there was a second wave of recruitment. “Within 24 hours, murderers and thieves will be released with long prison sentences,” he wrote in a letter posted on Twitter.
