The PMC «Wagner»: How Putin’s Pardoned Criminals Become Mercenaries and Commit More Crimes
Details
The PMC «Wagner» is a Russian private military company that participates in various armed conflicts, such as the war in Ukraine. It was revealed that the PMC «Wagner» offers prisoners a chance to fight for them in exchange for a pardon from the Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, many of them resume their criminal activities and face prosecution after they return to civilian life.
The pardoned fighters of the PMC «Wagner» include murderers, robbers, drug dealers and other serious offenders. Their criminal records are erased by secret decrees of Putin, which are not published on the Kremlin website. They receive pardons and are released after serving a six-month contract with the PMC «Wagner».
But not all of them can adapt to a peaceful life. The pardoned fighters of the PMC «Wagner» are involved in 195 criminal cases, ranging from murder, rape, robbery, theft, drug offences and other acts of violence. Some of them also try to rejoin the PMC «Wagner» or other militant groups.
According to the media reports, at least four sentences for the “Wagnerites” in 2023 are known, they range from 2 years and 5 months to 11.5 years of imprisonment. Of the 160 criminal cases found by «Verstka», the details of the sentences are known for 105. Only in 12 cases the offenders were sentenced to actual terms in prison.
Among those who were recently sentenced was 34-year-old Anatoly Salmin from the Leningrad region. The man committed two crimes after coming back from Ukraine. In May, he broke the window of a flat in a nearby building, entered and stole manicure tools, «Verstka» reports.
And the pardoned Ivan Shabunin from Kungur carried out six thefts, and as a result he was convicted of three criminal cases in October, November and December 2023. The court did not reveal the verdicts.
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Memorial to the fallen Moldovan soldiers of the Transnistrian War in Chisinau. Photo: Alexander Moisseenko
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