Kremlin recruits:

“You may have gold teeth & jewelry from the corpses”

A Russian soldier in the Ukraine

(Bild: AFP/Alexander NEMENOV (Archivbild))

An ex-Wagner mercenary and veterinarian from St. Petersburg, pardoned for his war service, travels through Russian penal colonies and uses hair-raising statements to "advertise" a mission at the front. "You can rip out the corpses' gold teeth, take their gold chains. You can steal and bring everything home with you. The Russian Ministry of Defense will protect you from questions from the Ministry of the Interior," he says in a hardened tone.

Russian journalists are reminded by Dmitry Karavaychik of the drug-cooking high school teacher Walter White from the popular TV series "Breaking Bad". It was a "hobby" and extra income - namely producing amphetamines - that sent Dmitri the vet to the gulag. In the sinister prison, he was recruited for deployment on the front and, after six months of murder and bloodshed in Ukraine, was a free man again. And a hero in Russia.

Today, Dmitri walks through prison camps with his head held high and a medal on his chest - he is looking for Prigozhin-like "supplies" for the front, as one prisoner told the US broadcaster "Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty".

"Scumbags can achieve fame"
 According to the inmate, a real recruitment drive was organized in the prison, where everyone had to turn up. Dmitri Karavaychik stood proudly on a pedestal, next to him was an officer who kept nodding his head.

Nobody needs them (the prisoners, note) anymore and they can't hope for anything good, Dmitri said. But in war, real scumbags and complete losers could achieve fame, he said bluntly, and boasted that Kiev had put a bounty of 250 million roubles on his head. Conveniently, he was even allowed to take a machine gun home with him, according to Dmitri.

Here you can see Dmitri Karavaychik:

War sold as a "great opportunity"
"Go to the front and let it rip. Tear out the corpses' gold teeth, you can also take their gold chains. You can steal and take everything home with you, he tried to convince the desperate men. "The war is your big chance," he continued like a motivational speaker. "You can steal, kill, do what you want and get rich. You may never return home again. But you'll definitely have a lot of fun," Dmitri shocked us with his unscrupulous manner. The inmate admitted that this didn't go down well with the inmates either. Only one of them had signed up to work at the front.

No more pardons
In February last year, the now deceased mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was deprived of the opportunity to recruit soldiers for the front in prison. Since then, the Russian Ministry of Defense has been at the helm. This has only changed things for the worse for the prisoners. Instead of being pardoned after six months in Ukraine, the contracts are now open-ended - officially they have to serve until the fighting is over. Since then, their prison sentences are no longer waived, but the remaining time is merely put on probation. There is also no longer any question of voluntary service - instead, the inmates are now sent to their doom under pressure and duress.