Meanwhile, reports suggest the Wagner Group has not halted its hiring drive but is instead employing more predatory practices to gather convicts.
Prigozhin made the surprise statement on the Telegram account of the press service of the company Concord, which he owns. He was answering a question from a Russian media outlet.."They write that for more than a month there has been no recruitment from correctional facilities in the Wagner PMC. And you yourself no longer come to the colonies. Is it so?"
Prigozhin, a 61-year-old Russian businessman who earned the nickname"Putin's chef" through his catering contracts with the Kremlin, has been recruiting in Russian prisons since the summer of 2022 through the Wagner Group, founded in 2014.spearheaded a recruitment drive Prigozhin was seen in a leaked video in September 2022 recruiting soldiers from Russia's extensive penitentiary system, amid reports that the country was facing personnel shortages in Ukraine.
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