‘We thieves and killers are now fighting Russia’s war’: how Moscow recruits from its prisons

Inmates describe visits by Yevgeny Prigozhin, reported head of the Wagner group, who is said to offer pardons for those who enlist

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The inmates of penal colony No 8, in the Tambov region 300 miles south of Moscow, rushed to their cell windows when they heard the sound of a helicopter approaching on a late afternoon in July.

No one ever uses a chopper to get down here. We were curious what the big occasion was," recalled Ivan, one of the inmates.