❗️On New Year’s Eve, prigozhin had a meeting with the former prisoners who had «worked out» their six-month contract with the PMC «Wagner» and informed them about the cancellation of all criminal convictions. Prigozhin called the work of ex-prisoners in the PMC «Wagner» a «vocation» where «they did what they love» and concluded «if there is no war here tomorrow, they should go to Africa and defend RUSSIAN interests there»
☝️ From the very beginning of the russian invasion of Ukraine, the «Wagner group» became for putin the most important tool in his aggression against Ukraine. After all, the use of unofficial military units as «cannon fodder» allowed the kremlin to reduce the level of losses in its official armed forces. The so-called private military company of Wagner is the most revealing example of russia’s use of such armed formations.
‼️ For a long time, the leadership of the russian federation and putin personally publicly denied the presence of military units of the russian federation on the territory of other country. Today, «Wagner» generally operates without any legal basis, such a company is not officially registered in the register of legal entities either in the russian federation or in any other country. Despite the illegality of the formation, until recently, the PMC «Wagner» was one of the most effective power structures of the kremlin abroad, which was regularly mentioned by the Western journalists, but was kept silent by the russian authorities. «Wagner» was involved by the special services of the russian federation in hostilities in Syria, Libya, Sudan, the Central African Republic and Madagascar. In the information space, its activities were disguised under «covering legends»: «military personnel on vacation», «lost», «volunteers», etc. In fact, it is a freelance military unit of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the russian Armed Forces, which is completely under the control of the russian top military-political leadership.
Secondly, the «Wagner» turned out to be skilled soldiers, while the combat effectiveness of the russian army in Ukraine turned out to be low. According to the estimates of the representative of the US National Security Council, John Kirby, at the end of December, the «Wagner» group in Ukraine had up to 50,000 people, 40,000 of them consisted of prisoners, of whom about 900 have already died. The prisoners who were in the first group of amnesties were recruited by prigozhin in the first half of the summer, in the colonies of the leningrad and novgorod regions. The PMC «Wagner» is a russian project that participates in ground operations in Syria, Africa and in the war against Ukraine. The company’s fighters are accused of committing numerous war crimes, including extrajudicial executions in Syria, Africa, and the war against Ukraine.
❓Their biographies vividly speak of the «favorite business» of criminal «musicians» in Ukraine. Among the prisoners recruited in the colonies, mostly those convicted of various crimes: murders, robberies, forming gangs.
🔸 In 2014, dmytro karyagin was sentenced to 14.5 years in a maximum security prison in Kazan for killing his veteran grandmother.
🔸 dmytro karavaychyk was sentenced in 2019 to 17 years for creating a criminal group for the production and sale of drugs.
🔸 oleksandr suetov was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2020 for organizing a criminal group that robbed jewelry stores in st. petersburg.
Among the other fighters of «Wagner» are danіla saveliev (twice convicted of robbery), denis kinev (a thief with experience, convicted of robbery and murder), anatoliy salmin (also imprisoned for theft, kidnapping and murder), oleksandr nikitin (thief, on account who has at least ten crimes), viktor varnakov (twice convicted of fraud to 13 years in prison)…
It is still unclear on what grounds the release of these criminals is taking place, and the acts of pardon of the president of the russian federation have not yet been published. That is, in fact, the amnesty of «Wagner» criminals is prigozhin’s personal initiative and another evidence of the degradation of russian statehood, where instead of legal mechanisms in the country, «conceptual» ones are increasingly used. However, the fiasco of the «Wagner» PMC mercenaries near Bakhmut in Donetsk region will only intensify the split in the russian «elite» and intensify the struggle for power in the kremlin between the shoigu and prigozhin influence groups.
❗️Although prigozhin urged the amnestied «not to step on a crooked path», only a naive average russian can hope that these «brave»guys on the «grazhdanke» will not return to their «dark deeds». After all, the economic situation in russia and mass unemployment do not give such a «contingent» any chance to settle down in a peaceful life. In addition, this contingent received in Ukraine «combat experience» of torture of the civilian population, looting and the use of weapons, which they will definitely bring home. The only thing the russians can hope for is that the amnestied criminals will return to the PMC, where they will die on Ukrainian soil. According to journalists, all those pardoned have signed new contracts with the PMC and must return to Ukraine in 45 days.
