The Russian mercenary group Wagner is actively recruiting convicts to go fight in Ukraine and are no joke with those who try to run away after accepting the offer.
The recent online publication on an account linked to the organization of an atrocious video in which an ex-con presented as a deserter is apparently executed with a club could aim to discourage recruits tempted to imitate him.
The leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigojine, a close collaborator of Russian President Vladimir Putin, first publicly welcomed the execution, noting that it was, according to him, a “magnificent work” largely justified by the behavior of the victim, described as a “dog”.
PHOTO ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Yevgeny Prigojine, leader of the Wagner group
He returned to his remarks a few days later in a press release relayed by Agence France-Presse where he denies any responsibility for the organization and accuses the American intelligence services of being responsible for the “kidnapping”.
Vanda Felbab-Brown, who studies non-state armed groups at the Brookings Institution, notes that the Wagner group does not hesitate to use extreme violence in the countries where it is deployed to sow terror.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they used the same strategy for deserters,” noted the analyst while warning that she could not guarantee the authenticity of the video.
Sent to Ukraine
The man who appears there identifies himself as Evguéni Noujiine, a 55-year-old Russian ex-convict.
According The Guardianhe was serving a 24-year prison sentence in Russia for murder before being released and recruited by the Wagner Group to be sent to Ukraine.
The daily interviewed his son, Ilia Noujiine, who said he was “horrified” by the content of the video.
After being captured by Ukrainian forces in September, the ex-Russian detainee said in a filmed interview that he planned to surrender to the Ukrainians as soon as he could to evade the Wagner group.
In the video of the execution, he tells the camera that he was abducted while he was in Kyiv and taken, unconscious, to a cellar to be “tried”. A club manipulated by a person offscreen then falls on his head.
An NGO working on the Russian prison system, Gulagu.net, said Yevgeny Nuzhjin may have been handed over to the Wagner Group after being recaptured by Russian forces in Ukraine. The possibility that he was transferred to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange that took place in November has also been raised.
Mme Velbab-Brown notes that it would be much more difficult for the Wagner group to carry out an extrajudicial execution on Russian soil than in the occupied areas of Ukraine, where the level of impunity is “much higher”.
Inmates recruited
The Kremlin spokesman, who denies any connection with the mercenary organization, limited himself to saying earlier this week in reaction to the video that “it does not concern” the government.
The case is indicative of the manpower needs of the Wagner group, which normally uses ex-servicemen with extensive field experience, notes Mme Velbab Brown.
The analyst notes that recruitment posters for the organization have appeared in several prisons across the country this summer.
Videos showing Yevgeny Prigojine himself in conversation with detainees then circulated. He promises the men present that they will regain their freedom after having served in Ukraine, but specifies that he cannot guarantee that they will come back alive.
In an excerpt obtained by the BBC, he adds that recruits will have to comply with several strict rules. “The first sin is desertion,” he warns.
The NGO Behind the Bars told Russian media that thousands of detainees had been recruited this way before being sent to the front, including foreigners.
The Zambian government asked Russia earlier this week for an explanation after being informed that one of its nationals had been killed in Ukraine.
The victim, a 23-year-old student, had been sentenced in 2020 to nine years in prison for unspecified crimes and was serving his sentence in a prison in the Moscow region.