Posted on 02/13/2023 4:13:16 PM PST by Zhang Fei
One such incident recently occurred in the village Zhireken.
Nikita Kasatkin, a 23-year-old native of Zhireken who joined Wagner in hopes of commuting his sentence, was returned for burial after being killed fighting in Ukraine.
According to legal documents seen by RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities, Kasatkin was given a 10-year sentence for the murder of a local woman in 2020 but is believed to have joined Wagner in 2022 after serving only two years.
Due to his difficult history in the small village, many residents are opposed to giving Kasatkin a proper soldier's funeral service at the local community center. However, a faction of local residents has begun lobbying Zhireken's mayor to organize a service, despite his violent past.
Locals told a correspondent from Siberia.Realities that the case has divided the village and revealed rifts over how to view Wagner mercenaries fighting on behalf of Russia in Ukraine, given their criminal pasts.
"The murder happened only two or three years ago, and people still remember it," said Alena Kogodeyeva, Zhireken's mayor. "Many residents are outraged, and there are those who say, ‘Are we going to make heroes out of killers now?'"
Similar episodes have happened across Russia in recent months. In one case from January, Prigozhin himself took to his social media channels after the parents of a Wagner fighter who was serving a sentence for theft was killed in Ukraine and denied a funeral in his hometown of Kamyshlov when his body was returned.
"Unfortunately, I was not aware that the [mayor's office] decided to show its [savagery] in this way," Prigozhin said in a statement posted to the Vkontakte page of his company Concord. "We will deal with this scum and we will try to pull their children by the nostrils to participate in [Ukraine]."
(Excerpt) Read more at rferl.org ...
Ukraine ping
Convicts who serve in Wagner’s formations have suffered severe casualties due to the human wave tactics increasingly employed in order to make up dwindling supplies of armored fighting vehicles. One of promises made to the convicts recruited while serving prison terms was - whether they survived or not, they would be treated as heroes in their hometowns at the end of their military service. For the deceased convicts, at the very least, the townsfolk who knew them best are balking at idea of honoring their military service. The crimes for which they were convicted remain far too fresh.
“Confession by projection.”
Putin is desperate for bodies.
The russkie propaganda says the Ukes abandon their dead on the battlefield where their bodies are devoured by pack animals and vultures.
Both true? Both lies? A little of both, probably.
Radio Free Europe = CIA, by the way.
LOL sure there are LOL
Shades of the Nazis conscription of the Jews and others for the ovens.
Wagner is using the prisoners in waves to map out strong points and weak points in Ukrainian lines and to keep the Ukranians occupied, as they break through weak points. The Soviets did this with penal battalions in Ww2.
“Radio Free Europe ^”
Enough said:)
It is all fine except Wagner never employed more than 3,000 convicts and mercenaries generally don’t like to die.
Ukraine ping
NorseViking: [It is all fine except Wagner never employed more than 3,000 convicts and mercenaries generally don’t like to die.]
While they would prefer not to die, the reality is that there are guns pointed at their backs. Until they are much closer to the Ukrainians than the Russians behind them, they can’t surrender. And even surrender is vaguely iffy. A Wagner prisoner who surrendered to Ukraine was reputedly traded back to Russia in a prisoner exchange. Prigozhin had the guy killed with a sledgehammer.
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-723234
The Ukrainians want their men back. They need Russians as collateral. Would it surprise anyone if they chose to hand convicts back rather than hold on to them for the duration of the war and attempt to assimilate them into Ukrainian society after the war? Ukraine has enough of its own problem children. It doesn’t need to import them from Russia.
Putin is likely downsizing Wagner because he fears a potential coup attempt from Prigozhin. And he’s not paranoid in thinking that. Stalin’s repeated purges of military officers and other key figures in Russia’s security establishment were said to be the outgrowth of a paranoid mind. In reality, it was completely rational. A ruler’s position at the top of the totem pole is purely a social construct. In democracies, physical force is generally ruled out as a means of replacing the titular leader, but everything short of that is cricket, which is why the UK has had 3 PM’s in a year. A dictator like Russia’s has to worry about being physically eliminated by one of his underlings, given the right opportunity.
Beria certainly claimed to have poisoned Stalin, perhaps with warfarin. It is said that Stalin required his inner circle to taste his food. A good chunk of that circle was purged (i.e. killed) from time to time. Would it be any great surprise if they had ingested an antidote in collusion before administering the poison?
They are lucky to get enough back to bury. Mostly they get parts.
ping back
[They are lucky to get enough back to bury. Mostly they get parts.]
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