Two Moldovan citizens who were sentenced to jail in Russia were enrolled in the Wagner Group last year and sent to fight in Ukraine. Their names are now written on wooden crosses in a cemetery with hundreds of graves set up by the Wagner Group on the outskirts of Bakinskaya village in Russia’s Krasnodar region, says a journalistic investigation conducted by RISE Moldova, which is quoted by IPN.
When the enrolment started, one of them, Ion*, was to be set free in a year, while Vlad was to be released in two years (conventional names are used to protect the relatives of these – e.n.). The crosses say the men died in August-October 2022, at the apogee of the battle for Bahmut.
Liliana Botnaryuk, co-author of RISE Moldova’s investigation, said that she confirmed the information with documents and relatives received by relatives from Wagner. The relatives are sure that the two didn’t go to war voluntarily.
“We could not obtain concrete evidence that Ion and Vlad were obliged to enroll in Wagner and to fight in war. Lawyer Vadim Vieru said yet that there are circumstances and suspicions that the decisions could have been taken under pressure,” stated Liliana Bornaryuk.
“Forced enrolment can be considered any situation when the consent is vitiated or the will of persons is influenced by particular circumstances. For example, if they don’t accept to be enrolled into the paramilitary force, they are stripped of parcels, of the right to have meetings with relatives or are placed in solitary confinement”.
The Moldovan authorities didn’t possess data about the total number of Moldovan citizens who are imprisoned in Russia. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs received a response from Moldova’s Embassy in Russia on the day RISE’s article was published. According to official data provided by the Russian authorities, 621 Moldovan citizens are now behind bars in Russia. Out of these, 166 are in remand detention, while 455 are in penitentiaries.
The founder of the private army Yevgeny Prigozhin, who recently marched with his troops towards Moscow in a coup attempt, confirmed that the cemetery belongs to his company.
