Video: Footage of Russian Prisoners Being Recruited for War Emerges Online

A video has surfaced on the Telegram channel of Alexei Navalny's team, "Popular Politics," which has quickly spread across social media. The footage, filmed in one of Russia's colonies, shows an oligarch close to Putin and Wagner PMC organizer Yevgeny Prigozhin recruiting prisoners to participate in the Ukrainian war.

The video was recorded on a mobile phone in an anonymous colony, believed to be IK-6 located in the Mari El Republic. The man, identified by social media users as Prigozhin, speaks to a crowd of lined-up prisoners, presenting himself as a representative of a private military company, Wagner PMC, and informs the inmates that he is recruiting fighters, specifically only needing “stormtroopers.”

Among the requirements are ages between 22 and 50 years and a good physical condition. He states, “The minimum age we accept is 22. If they are younger, a piece of paper is needed from close relatives stating that they do not object. The maximum age is, conditionally, 50. But if someone is strong, we conduct basic tests during the interview to see how strong he is.”

The recruiter also mentions that those on drugs will be eliminated if they are inclined toward it since drugs and alcohol are completely prohibited for fighters. Additionally, the prisoners will undergo thorough examination; however, he “understands that everyone can make mistakes.”

He also emphasized that desertion is absolutely unacceptable, and anyone who arrives and states on the first day that they are in the wrong place is labeled a “deserter,” after which they are executed. Surrendering is also unacceptable; those in a hopeless situation, according to orders, are expected to use grenades on themselves and the advancing enemy.

For more details, watch the video.