They should rot in penal colonies. Now they got medals for bravery – o2

The Nexta portal posted a recording of the short ceremony. It shows four men, one of whom is wearing a mask, being presented by an official with Russian government medals for bravery, a commemorative badge and a full pardon and release from the need to serve a prison sentence.

It’s so easy in #Russia that a prisoner becomes not only a free man, but also a proud recipient of a medal “for bravery”. Do the Russians understand that these people are returning to society? – Nexta executives are surprised.

However, returning to the bosom of society is not a foregone conclusion. The same men had met Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner group, a few days earlier. Each of them paid for participation in the fight with significant damage to health: the loss of a leg or an arm. The Russian businessman promised them prosthetic limbs and a return to the front once they announced they wanted to continue fighting in the ranks of Wagner’s group after rehabilitation.

You can go [z grupy Wagnera] Only for retirement from old age or in a zinc coffin. Everyone else is coming back – then Yevgeny Prigozhin joked.

One of the decorated and pardoned mercenaries admitted in an interview with the leader of Wagner’s group that he had been in a penal colony before the “special operation”. He was able to serve 10 years of his 23-year sentence and then joined Wagner’s group. Prigozhin proudly asserted that before the “special operation” his interlocutor was a criminal, “now he is a war hero.”

The man turned out to be Stanisław Bogdanow. In 2013, the man was sentenced to 23 years in prison for killing a judge. Bogdanov crushed the victim’s skull with a dumbbell.

Earlier, Ukrainian and Russian media reported that Prigozhin managed to attract 10,000 people from penal colonies to participate in the war with Ukraine. Prisoners. According to organizations that liaise with inmates’ families, Wagner’s team is highly selective of inmates convicted of violent crimes.