Russia to close some Siberian prisons as inmates are fighting in Ukraine, Kommersant newspaper

 Authorities in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region plan to close several prisons this year amid a decline in inmate numbers driven by recruitment of convicts for the Ukraine war, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Thursday.

Kommersant cited Mark Denisov, Krasnoyarsk's regional human rights commissioner, as telling the regional legislature that at least two local prisons would be closed due to "a large one-time reduction in the number of convicts in the context of the special military operation [in Ukraine]."

Russia has recruited prisoners to fight in Ukraine since 2022, when Yevgeny Prigozhin, the late head of the Wagner mercenary group, began touring penal colonies, offering prisoners a pardon if they survived six months at the front.

Prisoner recruitment operations

Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash shortly after leading a short-lived mutiny against Russia's military leaders, said he had recruited 50,000 prisoners for Wagner.

Data published by Russia's penal service at the time showed sudden drops in the country's prison population. Russia's Defence Ministry has since continued recruiting convicts from prisons for its own Storm-Z formations.