Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Relatives of prisoners in a Siberian penal colony have gathered at its entrance to try to prevent their loved ones being mobilised, after contact with several colonies was cut off following the arrival of Wagner PMC recruiters. Translation follows ⬇️

2/ Taiga.info reports that the IK-14 penal colony at Toguchin near Novosibirsk is one of several that have been cut off from telephone communications, supposedly due to COVID outbreaks but more likely after Wagner Group representatives arrived to recruit prisoners.

3/ "About 20 relatives of inmates of Toguchin penal colony No. 14 gathered outside the penal colony on the morning of 3 November.

4/ There has been no communication at the facility since 30 October and they have no information about the fate of their loved ones, they told Taiga.info.

5/ Some relatives went to meet with the authorities.

"According to media reports, private military companies in correctional facilities in Novosibirsk and the region are recruiting inmates to take part in the Special Military Operation.

6/ Which is not only a violation of Russian law that does not provide for the participation of prisoners in this or that special operation, even at their own request, ...

7/ but also a violation of the quarantine requirements imposed by the chief sanitary doctor," says an appeal to the head of the colony (available to the editorial office).

8/ Earlier the Novosibirsk directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service announced that as of 25 October the provision of long and short-term visits to convicts in IK-14, as well as in colonies No. 2, 3, 8, 12, 13 and 18 was "temporarily suspended".

9/ This list coincides with the list of institutions where, according to human rights activists, recruitment to the Wagner PMC could take place.

According to human rights activists, more than 200 people could have been recruited in IK-14.

10/ In a collective appeal, relatives of inmates of IK-14 ask for an unscheduled short-term visit or call to all convicts, and to provide a call in the near future to those prisoners who have agreed to participate in the "special operation" in Ukraine.

11/ "Organise in the near future a meeting of the human rights commissioner and members of the PMC with the relatives of the convicts and notify us of the date and time of the meeting," the relatives' demands read.

12/ "Suspend all actions for the preparation and sending of prisoners to the SMO zone without resolving these issues."

The first facts of the recruitment of Siberian prisoners for the "special operation" in Ukraine became known at the end of October.

13/ Taiga.info wrote that representatives of the Wagner PMC could visit prisons in the Kemerovo and Novosibirsk regions. The total number of recruits was estimated at over 1,000.

In addition, in the beginning, the recruiters were spotted in Tomsk and Omsk colonies."

Source:
tayga.info/179665