TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – More than 5,000 inmates Russia pardoned after completing their contract to fight in the mercenary group Group Wagner against Ukraine.
“Currently, more than 5,000 people have been released with pardons after concluding their contracts with Wagner,” said Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in an audio clip posted on Telegram, Saturday, March 25, 2023.
The Wagner Group, originally staffed by battle-hardened veterans of the Russian armed forces, took on a much more prominent role in the Ukraine war after the Russian army suffered a series of humiliating defeats last year.
Prigozhin, who is an ally of President Putin, recruited thousands of people from prison, offering them free rein in exchange for fighting in Ukraine.
Prigozhin, sometimes nicknamed “Putin’s chef” because of his catering business, is currently the most powerful of Putin’s other supporters in the war in Ukraine.
The United States labels Prigozhin an oligarch and has sanctioned him for attempting to meddle in US elections and for spreading Russian disinformation around the world.
Prigozhin, who served nine years in prison in Soviet times for robbery and other crimes before going into business during the 1990s, has admitted meddling in US elections and for the first time acknowledged his role in founding Wagner.
Wagner has combat experience in Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic and Mali, billing itself as the most formidable mercenary group in the world.
REUTERS
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