For the war in Ukraine, private military companies recruited at least 3,000 prisoners from Russian prisons. This number was given in an interview with DW by Olga Romanova, director of the Sedentary Foundation of Russia. Some are lured with large salaries of a hundred thousand, others – with pardon after six months of service. Ruslan was barely 20 years old, he had less than a year to sit on the “easy” article. He was influenced by the elderly in the detachment and propaganda of the TV, which works 24 hours in prisons, his sister Svetlana is sure.

Ruslan has realized his mistake and wants to go home. But so far there have been no cases of returning prisoners of war alive, they say in Sitting Russia. DW tells the story of Svetlana, who wants to set a precedent.

Character names have been changed, vocabulary is given in the original.

“I was sure he wasn’t going anywhere”

Ruslan is in his early twenties. He’s my second cousin, so we didn’t grow up together. He has a large family – besides him, his mother and stepfather have three more children. Ruslan did not live with them. He no longer has a father. His mother is married and she and her new husband enjoy growing up together. That is, they need money.

He was in prison for the second time. Both times under a light article with imprisonment not exceeding 2.5 years. The first time this happened was when he was 18. The first term, I went out with him on the phone through the glass, because he was in a pre-trial detention center. She brought you packages. To get a date, you had to queue at night. I even arrived at night by car and slept in it.

In the spring I told him that there were rumors on the Telegram channels about conscription of prisoners for war. They said they would recruit those who had difficult articles and long sentences. I reminded him that he had an easy article, he had a year to sit down, so don’t even let him think about it. He says, “Yes, of course, I’m not a fool. What interests should I fight for? Besides, the military is the same garbage. And I’m not going to follow the garbage’s orders.” After that, I was pretty sure he wasn’t going anywhere.

“I didn’t want my brother to be an occupant”

And on July 12th, your mother called me and asked if Ruslan called me. It turns out that a few days before that, he had already called her from the Rostov region and asked her to transfer his passport details to a WhatsApp number, which she did. After that, neither hear nor spirit him.

The next morning, I started writing angry letters demanding that my brother be returned to me urgently. I wrote to the human rights commissioner, to the Russian Federation prosecutor’s office, to the city’s prosecutor’s office. Where I did not write. He said in the spring that he wouldn’t.

Probably the first thing that inspired me to fight was my attitude towards this situation between Russia and Ukraine. I didn’t want my brother to be an occupant. I am against war with every cell in my body. I thought he was forced, hypnotized. Or drugs were mixed with the food to make it go away. I didn’t know what to think so I wanted to take it off.

Relatives of “not very active” prisoners

When I found women whose relatives also disappeared, I found that they all received the last call on the same day and were also asked to send their passport details to WhatsApp. Around the beginning of July, the recruitment would have taken place at the prison. They recruited about 70 people. They threw away all the dice and sat and waited.

In general, relatives are not very active. Someone is afraid and therefore does not write. And most are waiting for the promised money. Ruslan’s mother also stopped supporting me when she received 100 thousand rubles for him. True, as it turned out later, he agreed to 200 thousand.

“Aren’t you afraid that drugs are planted?”

While I was actively trying to return my brother to Russia and complaining to various authorities, a strange incident happened to me. They ruined my car. It looked like they were trying to rip the glass off with a screwdriver. And then Kostya Ivanov’s father, who was the eldest in Ruslan’s detachment, called me. He asked me, “Did you not receive any greetings?” I say I understand. “Aren’t you afraid drugs will be planted in you?” I say I’m afraid, yes. But I will keep writing.

Previously, Ruslan was usually purple – that Putin, that Navalny. He was never interested in anything. And in prison he was alone. Alone with those who have probably dripped into your brain that it is our duty to free Ukraine from the Nazis. “Let’s beat them. What are you, not a man? Are you a coward, or what?” I think he was there.

Olga Romanova said in her interviews that prisoners are recruited through elders. Maybe this Kostya sued? Maybe his salary was higher. I don’t know much about him, but his father said that his son dreamed of going to war. Yes, and the father himself appears to be a war veteran. But I do not know what role he played there and for what purpose he called me. After talking to him, I felt some pressure. I thought he was with them (representatives of the PMCs. – Ed.) is tied in some way. By the way, recently Kostya died.

“He asks to get him out of the war”

The other day Ruslan showed up. He called me when it was my turn to go to the dentist, so the conversation was short, three minutes. He’s been to Ukraine. I told him, “Hey, Occupant!” At first he didn’t understand, he asked again. I understood the second time. I asked him why he had changed his mind not to go to war in a few months.

He replied that he was bored in prison and tired of sitting around. I tried to push, “So you decided to take up arms and go to a foreign country, kill the citizens of a foreign country?” He muttered something, but I didn’t understand. It was very difficult to hear.

After that, we called a few more times. At first he repeated that everything was fine, then I spoke to him very harshly. He seems to have understood our conversation. Most likely, he thought there was no way back and didn’t want to upset me – so he said it was fine. Now he asks to be pulled back. He said he would ask his mother not to accept any more money. I don’t have a specific plan to get it back. Once again I will complain to the colony and to the Public Ministry.

“Maybe he didn’t go” to Ukraine

Now I regret that after your first term I refused to help you. So I promised him that I wouldn’t support him anymore if he got caught again. I only wrote him a letter when he was still in prison. In the spring, he asked me to go to the colony on a date. But I refused. “Sit alone now,” she said. And his mother didn’t visit him either.

Maybe if I talked to him, carried packages, came on dates… Maybe he wouldn’t, because I would have some influence over him. And so, it so happens that I played. If you knew where it would fall, you’d put straws in.