Russia Grants Amnesty to 5,000 Former Prisoners After Fighting in Ukraine

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Russian private military group Wagner, announced on Saturday that more than five thousand former prisoners had been granted amnesty after completing their contracts to fight for the group in Ukraine. Prigozhin stated that only 0.31 percent of those pardoned returned to crime after their service in Wagner, adding that this rate is ten to twenty times lower than standard indicators. Prigozhin has emerged from the shadows as a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, recruiting thousands of men from prisons by offering them a chance at freedom in exchange for participating in some of the most dangerous battles in Ukraine.