Wagner Group mercenaries who seized the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Saturday in a failed armed uprising included at least three convicted criminals, a Reuters analysis using facial recognition software and analysis of court records and social media showed.

Almost all of the militants involved in the worst threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s power to date had their faces covered so they could not be identified.

However, Reuters reveals that some of them have previously served prison terms, underscoring how the Kremlin’s decision to allow Prigozhin to recruit thousands of mercenaries from prisons across the country last year has come back to haunt him.

On Saturday morning, Wagner’s militants took control of the city of Rostov-on-Don, where the Southern Military Command of Russia is located.

Wagner’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin ordered his men to march on Moscow before being stopped and diverted from a failed attempt to oust Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Wagner’s mercenaries, among whom were former prisoners, have been fighting in Ukraine since the very beginning

after a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, especially the city of Bakhmut, where the bloodiest battle to date took place, and the Wagnerites won a rare victory in a stagnant Russian campaign.

Reuters previously reported that many of the convicted fighters who survived remain fiercely loyal to Prigozhin, to whom they owe a second chance at life. Putin pardons those who will live in Ukraine for six months in a secret decree.

In the case of the people identified by Reuters in Rostov, that loyalty extended to involvement in the uprising and raises questions about what they will do next as Putin tries to defuse the crisis.

They were given a choice: go to Belarus to Prigozhin, who is in exile there, join the regular army or return to civilian life.

Reuters tried to contact the three ex-convicts, but none of them responded to messages on social media.

The Russian Defense Ministry, the Criminal Service and Wagner did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Who are the criminals who occupied Rostov-on-Don as Wagner’s mercenaries

Wagner left Rostov late on Saturday after Belarusian President Oleksandr Lukashenko struck a deal with Prigozhin.

One of Wagner’s fighters who left the city that night was 25-year-old Dmytro Chekov, a native of Rostov, four times convicted of theft and drug-related crimes.

He was part of Wagner’s crew climbing aboard a military truck ready to leave town, and the only one whose face was visible as he posed for reporters and cheering locals.

Facial recognition software linked the bearded man in the video, obtained by Reuters, to an account on VKontakte, Russia’s equivalent of Facebook, created under the name Dmitry Chekov.

Since 2015, Rostov courts have sentenced Dmytro Chekov to six years and five months on three separate charges.

He received the last sentence of three years and four months for drug possession in January 2022.

A close relative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed to reporters that he was serving time in the colonies but did not know he had joined Wagner. However, the relative confirmed that in the picture shown by Reuters, he.

Last September, Russian media reported that Prigozhin visited prisons in the Rostov region and recruited more than 1,000 convicts for Wagner’s company of mercenaries.

In another image from Wagner’s occupation of Rostov, published by Russia’s state news agency TASS, Reuters used facial recognition software to identify Sergei Shirshov, 33, from the city of Saratov.

In VKontakte, Shirshov’s profile is the emblem of the Wagner Group.

According to published data, Shirshov was serving his sentence in correctional colony No. 2. 10 of increased security in the Saratov Region.

The local press reported that Prigozhin visited penal colony No. 1. October 10, 2022.

Wagner’s third action figure, photographed in Rostov, was identified by facial recognition software as Roman Yamalutdinov, originally from Krasnoyarsk, Siberia.

Yamalutdinov, 31, has been jailed at least twice since 2017 for drunk driving, carjacking and assaulting a police officer, according to legal documents seen by Reuters.

In the 2020 case, Yamalutdinov was classified as a dangerous person who violates the rules of imprisonment, and he was sent to a colony of stricter regime.

Reuters could not confirm that Yamalutdinov was in prison when Prigozhin began recruiting for Wagner, and his last recorded prison term expired in 2021.

However, Russian court documents available online are not complete. Prisoners’ rights activist Olga Romanova said that Prigozhin visited prisons in the Krasnoyarsk region in October and November 2022.