It is not known when exactly it was removed.

In the video, a man who looks like businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is called "Putin's cook" in the media, persuades people to go and fight in the "Wagner PMC".

He tells about the progress of the hostilities and the rules adopted in this unit, which is illegal according to Russian laws - in particular, that if someone agrees to go to the zone of hostilities and thinks twice, he is threatened with execution.

How to understand this video and what is currently known about the recruitment of prisoners and sending them to fight in Ukraine - this is what Nastoyashe Vremya asked human rights activist and founder of the "Sitting Russia" foundation Olga Romanova.

- We observe all this, we see and hear all this for two and a half months, which we do not stop talking about.

And if in July, when all this happened, no one wanted to believe it, now 10 thousand prisoners have been recruited.

- This person in the frame tells a lot of details.

Why didn't you know that?

- What we didn't know... I was surprised by only one thing, that Prigozhin seems to have two stars now.

I knew about one.

And about the fact that Piaskov was asked in the summer where Prigozhin got the Hero of Russia star - and he answered something vague.

I don't know if it makes sense to ask about the second one.

But it seems to me that the second star is for the first ten recruited prisoners.

And I was very much surprised by Prigozhyn's factology.

He talks about the first battle on the first of June - this is a lie, because in general "Vagner PMC" arrived for the first time in the Leningrad Region on June 29.

Indeed, the first recruits left this zone on July 1-2, they went to the Rostov region, to the Rostov colonies VK-2 and VK-12.

There they were prepared somehow, because mostly they were people who had not been trained in anything, who had not completed military service, 42 people.

And so the first fight was on July 14...

- I want to ask you one more question, but before that I want to show a fragment of the video from the colony.

(

.) We've heard that people with what charges probably won't get a spot in PVC: for example, production, storage of drugs.

Olga, what articles, so to speak, increase the chances of a potential recruit?

What kind of people "Wagner" needs, do you understand?

- Now they are recruiting everyone.

This weekend, a detachment from VK-7 of the Novgorod region was sent, 70 people from the lowest prison hierarchy, the so-called "dropped", were sent to the front.

What could not happen before.

I managed to talk to one of the latter and asked: "Why are you going there?".

He said that it is better to die than to sit here and there.

That means they are taking everyone now.

From the Tula region they wrote: "In general, everyone was taken away."

I quote: "Curvy, crooked, with HIV and so on."

They also accept articles on drug addiction, and now they are also accepting articles on sexual crimes.

In the Saratov region, they took a maniac with a record of cannibalism.

So, in principle, Prigozhin says that he prefers those who committed murder, preferably not domestic.

Robbery and robbery are also going well.

But in general they take everyone now.

- But this promise of pardon in six months, which was mentioned in the video, how legal is it at all?

If we can now talk about the law in relation to such a topic.

- We cannot talk about the law here at all, under no circumstances... As for pardon, the prerogative of pardon, in general, the right of pardon belongs to one person in the Russian Federation, that is the president.

The president has a website kremlin.ru, on the website there is a section "Pardons", you can open it and see that six people were last pardoned in 2021.

Nevertheless, even Prigozhin himself says that a pardon is possible only after six months of participation in combat operations.

I don't think there will be many survivors after six months.

Because the main cause of death [is], as relatives inform us, a mine explosion.

Or what the Wagnerites actually say: when a person is surrounded, he has two grenades, he detonates them on himself.

often explodes

although the prisoners are perfectly captured and surrender - we see footage from the Ukrainian side.

You can see it in my telegram, a few days ago I published a video of a prisoner surrendering, and I completely recognize him, I know who he is.

So they seem too.

Although Prigozhin's promise to shoot on the spot for the slightest suspicion of infidelity, no matter what, is, in general, also a not bad legal position, yes, shooting on the spot?

As far as I know, yes, [applies to] firing on the spot.

not a bad legal position either, yes, shooting on the spot?

As far as I know, yes, [applies to] firing on the spot.

not a bad legal position either, yes, shooting on the spot?

As far as I know, yes, [applies to] firing on the spot.

- Olga, 10 thousand prisoners, you said, have already been recruited.

How much do you think this number can increase?

How many more colonies can Eugene Prigozhin visit?

- He visits the colonies, the easternmost of which was Tatarstan.

He is not going to the Urals for reasons unknown to me.

In general, there are already 10,000 — and this is not the limit in central Russia.

If he goes to the Urals, where there is the greatest concentration of zones, as many as you like.

We have 600,000 prisoners, now a little less.

If we take into account those who are culled, at least half a million.