The Kremlin admires the Wagner group. Putin’s army is recruiting prisoners and… Cubans

However, the latest BBC report shows that JThe Russian Ministry of Defense has taken its place, at least in terms of recruitment tactics. One Storm-Z member, a former prisoner interviewed by the US-funded website Sever Realii, said that recruiters promised inmates generous payments: a salary of 205,000 rubles (about $2,000) a month, and 3 million rubles ($31,000) for injuries. And 5 million rubles. ($52,000) is paid to the conscript’s relatives in the event of his death.

Although the Russian military has neither confirmed nor denied the convicts’ recruitment, there are indications that they were sent to units known as Storm-Z. Mikhail Razvozaev, the governor of occupied Sevastopol in Crimea, confirmed on October 17 that one of two Storm-Z members recently killed in combat was a former prisoner.”He decided to atone for his sins and signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense in the spring of 2023“.

Also in October, another Storm-Z member was interviewed by the popular Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, A convicted murderer uses the call sign Robbers He spent six of his 19 years in prison before joining the Russian army.

Experts have no doubt that this is next Desperate attempts to recruit more troops to invade UkraineWhich did not go according to the Kremlin’s plan from the beginning. A few days ago we heard about an offer directed to… Russian women who are encouraged to carry sniper riflesAnd now, in addition to bringing back recruitment in the prisons, we’re also trying to attract… Cubans into the fight.

This is a case that first became public in September, but now a group of hackers have managed to intercept new data related to it Recruitment of Cubans into the Russian army. The volunteer intelligence community InformNapalm received emails from Ukrainian hacktivists from the Cyber ​​Resistance Team, containing evidence of the arrival of Cuban mercenaries signing contracts with the Russian Armed Forces.

InformNapalm reported that the newly discovered evidence contradicts the official statements of the Cuban government, which, regarding the scandal uncovered in the previous investigation (it turned out that 200 mercenaries were sent from Cuba to Russia), stated that: It prohibits “the participation of Cuban citizens in any conflict,” condemns mercenary activities, and closes the mercenary recruitment channel to Russia. Well, passport photos of at least 59 Cubans who arrived in the Russian city of Tula between August 25 and September 29 to sign contracts suggest otherwise.