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Businessman who controls mercenary group Wagner: Recruiting prisoners for war in Ukraine, has reduced crime in Russia

Businessman who controls mercenary group Wagner: Recruiting prisoners for war in

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin-linked businessman who controls the mercenary group Wagner, has defended his group's practice of recruiting convicts to fight in Ukraine.

In a statement released by Prigozhn's press service, he said that more than 5,000 prisoners have been pardoned and returned to civilian life after serving six months in the war.

According to him, less than 1 percent of them committed any other crime in the first month after returning to Russia. He claimed that this percentage is much lower than the typical recidivism rate.

"We have reduced crime in Russia", claimed Prigozhin.

None of Prigozhin's claims could be independently verified.

Wagner's members – with thousands of men recruited from prisons across Russia – have been actively involved in the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine that Russia launched in February last year.

Prigozhin said last month that Wagner would no longer recruit prisoners, while the Russian Ministry of Defense is reported to have launched its own recruitment campaign in Russian prisons./REL

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