“Cannon fodder”: Tajik prisoners in Russian jails remain without protectors

“Do you have anyone to pull out of here with a ten-year sentence? What do you think? There are two who pull people out: that’s Allah and God in a wooden box. I pull you out alive. But I don’t always return you alive.”

These words belong to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the private military company Wagner (PMC Wagner). He said them in the fall of 2022 during a meeting with prisoners in one of the Russian prisons. Prigozhin promised amnesty for six months of participation in the war. Now, amnesty is being demanded for one, one and a half, and even two years of service. However, Prigozhin’s latest proposals are no longer heard. Those who recruit prisoners for the war no longer speak about death. The last words of the head of Wagner revealed the possible price for this deal: getting out of prison does not necessarily mean returning home alive.

Prigozhin, a professional killer with the blood of thousands on his hands from Africa to Ukraine, has long been dead. But his business continues through the Ministry of Defense of Russia, as well as several other structures, including the Investigative Committee, the police, and the Federal Penitentiary Service, and with even greater brutality and more violations.

The material published two days ago by Radio Ozodi about the pressure on Tajik prisoners to send them to war is just one of hundreds of cases happening daily. Information about the pressure on prisoners, including descriptions of brutal, indescribable torture, rarely escapes the walls of prisons. If all such cases were revealed and became public knowledge, we might read ten similar articles every day.

In an analytical article published on November 25, 2024, by the publication Meduza, lawyers spoke about the pressure and threats against prisoners:

“After the liquidation of Prigozhin and the final transfer of the recruitment of convicts to the Ministry of Defense, there is a wave of attracting prisoners to the front. In the colony where I have been, since 2023, military recruitment vehicles have been stationed at the entrance — their sides displayed calls to join contract service. The officials from the Ministry of Defense who arrived there were engaged in recruiting prisoners.”

Imagine the scale of recruitment! Prigozhin may have visited the colony once, while the military recruitment officials were stationed there DAILY!

Despite limited access to information from the colonies, many investigations have been conducted on this issue.

In particular, investigations by Meduza, Mediazona, the BBC, as well as a report by Current Time published in 2024, show various aspects of this process: false promises, threats, pressure, high losses among prisoners of war, and even legal problems for those who survived.

A joint study by Mediazona and the Russian service of the BBC titled “The Price of Bakhmut” shows that Prigozhin’s structures have recruited at least 48,000 prisoners for the war. Journalists identified the names of 43,800 individuals who were taken from places of detention. The publication also includes documents about approximately 19,500 Wagner fighters who died in battles for Bakhmut, of whom about 17,000 were former prisoners. These figures are based not only on the accounts of their relatives. The authors of the investigation compared internal documents regarding payments to the relatives of the deceased with other data, including the registry of inheritance cases and lists of the deceased.

The study shows that after the initial waves of recruitment, the number of volunteers sharply decreased. As a result, pressure, threats, torture, and restrictions became more frequently used to recruit prisoners.

In an analytical article published on November 25, 2024, by Meduza, lawyers spoke about the pressure and threats faced by prisoners. In a recent piece by Radio Ozodi, Tajik prisoners reported that prisoners from Central Asia are currently held in BUR (strict regime barracks) and SUS (strict conditions of detention), which are special cells for particularly dangerous prisoners, to force them to sign contracts for war. The lawyers who spoke with Meduza were direct witnesses to such coercion.

Another study by Meduza states that the Russian Ministry of Defense sent prisoners to war without signed contracts. This is a very dangerous process that could be applied even more broadly in the future. If the Ministry of Defense and the Federal Penitentiary Service see that the relatives of prisoners, especially Tajiks without patrons, or their state do not take any action against forced recruitment, in the future any of them could be sent to war without their own consent.

Other investigations have also been published about foreign prisoners being sent to war. In particular, on October 14, 2024, the publication Current Time reported on a 32-year-old citizen of Tajikistan named Jovid. According to him, he had only seven months left to serve out of a seven-year sentence. However, he was forced to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense. He stated that strong pressure was applied to Tajik and Uzbek prisoners to sign the contract. All those who refused were sent to a punishment cell.

Jovid also reported that the prison administration and the Ministry of Defense forced him to sign a document renouncing his Tajik citizenship and a statement for obtaining Russian citizenship simultaneously with signing the contract for service.

A group of prisoners sent a letter to the publication complaining about the insults to their religion and unbearable conditions of detention. According to them, Russians (apparently at the direction of the authorities – author’s note) subjected foreign nationals in prisons to constant beatings and torture. Guards even took away their clothing to further worsen the conditions.

On the other hand, even after being released from prison and participating in the war, they did not receive equal legal status compared to others. In a BBC investigation published by Meduza on September 27, 2024, more than 20 court decisions were examined. According to these, from February 24 to September 1, 2023, the Ministry of Defense sent prisoners to the “Storm-Z” units, which are considered some of the deadliest on the front lines. Prisoners were sent there based on a written agreement without signing a standard contract. The problem is that under the law, such an agreement is not a contract that defines the rights and obligations of the parties. As a result, courts in many cases denied plaintiffs the payments provided for participation in the war.

According to the documents reviewed, separate payment and compensation norms for injuries were established for former prisoners. This means that these individuals found themselves in unequal conditions not only on the front lines but also regarding compensation and payments. Ultimately, most prisoners were sent to the most difficult and deadly areas of the front, where the likelihood of survival is very low. Furthermore, they had no guarantees of receiving payments and benefits.

For Tajik prisoners, who remain without patrons, the situation is even more complicated. Relatives of Russian prisoners at least have the option to go to court. However, for the relatives of Tajik prisoners to file lawsuits in Russian courts against the persecution and torture of their loved ones in prisons and forced conscription into the war, they need at least the support of their home government, which is absent and will not be forthcoming.

As a result, their children are used as cannon fodder in a senseless foreign war.

Abdumanon Sheraliev