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Telegram channel VChK-OGPU published a video showing “Putin's chef” Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is also known as the owner or patron of the Wagner PMC, recruiting inmates of IK 6 in Yoshkar-Ola for taking part in the war against Ukraine.
In the footage he stands in front of the line of inmates telling them about the conditions of military service.
“I only need storm troopers. <...> Those who move forward, those who are the most vigorous, they survive better. Those who retreat, who don't understand what they have to do, get screwed,” says “Putin's chef.”
According to Prigozhin, the minimum age for a person to be sent to war in Ukraine is 22. However, if the applicant is younger, the problem can be solved with a note from relatives that they are not against his enrolment. The maximum age is supposed to be 50.
Prigozhin says that all applicants must be interviewed and must complete several tests. Also, he says, special attention will be paid to those who are serving time for drug and sexual abuse related crimes, with the former to be tested by polygraph. After six months of service the inmates will be pardoned and sent home, Prigozhin says.
The biggest “sin,” according to Prigozhin, is desertion:
“No one backs up, no one retreats, no one surrenders. When you are trained on what to do when surrendering, you will be told about the two grenades you must have on you. <...> Those who arrive and on the first day say, “I must’ve come to the wrong place,” are marked as “deserters,” and that’s followed by a firing squad.”
Another “sin” is looting. By looting Prigozhin means, among other things, sexual contact with “local women, flora, fauna, men, anyone.”
It is noteworthy that Prigozhin also explicitly says he owns the Wagner PMC. Thus, he says he has combat aircraft, MLRSs and tanks “in his PMC.” He also mentions there is an option to stay in the Wagner PMC after serving in Ukraine. Those killed in action are promised burial in their hometowns on the alleys of heroes or near the PMC’s chapel in Goryachii Klyuch.
Prigozhin also speaks about the first inmates who were recruited:
“The first inmates who fought alongside me, on June 1, during the storming of the Uglegorsk TPP, 40 people from St. Petersburg, strict regime, recidivists, they got into the enemy trenches, slaughtered the enemies with knives, three killed, seven wounded. One of those killed was 52 years old, of which he served thirty in prison, he died heroically.”