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Mar 21, 2023 15 tweets 3 min read Read on X
1/ The Russian Ministry of Defence is reportedly coercing convicts to join the Russian army by threatening them with being incarcerated alongside men who are available to be raped, regarded as untouchables in Russian prison culture. ⬇️ Image
2/ Russia's prisons operate a brutal caste system based on a sexual hierarchy, where some prisoners are treated as available to be raped by anyone. These men are known as the "cocks", "offended", "lowered", "forced" or "crests", and are made to sleep next to the toilets.
3/ Importantly, "cock" status is treated as being contagious. They are literally untouchable: interacting with "cocks", sharing their food, touching them or their possessions (unless you are raping them) is regarded as being enough to make you a "cock" as well.
4/ The Wagner Group's head Yevgeny Prigozhin (a former convict himself) has explained this distinction and established a separate "cock division" within Wagner for convicts who can't interact with other convicts.
5/ However, according to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, the Russian MOD is exploiting this untouchability to force non-cock prisoners to sign up for mlitary service. The channel explains:
6/ "First, the inmates are persuaded by ex-convicts who allegedly survived the war, and then they are threatened, even to the point of joining detachments with the "offended".
7/ "According to our source, a certain brigade is “touring” in various Russian prison colonies, the members of which are represented as prisoners who were allegedly recruited into the Wagner PMC, went through the war and were released.
8/ "The 'Zeks' describe how long they had to serve in prison, but thanks to the war they are already free and have money. After this, the convicts are offered not to sign up in the Wagner PMC, but as contract employees of the Ministry of Defence.
9/ "However, according to the source, there are very few people willing to volunteer, since everyone knows that it is virtually impossible to return from the war. The administrative resource is used to its maximum capacity.
10/ "For example, in Tula Region's penal colony No. 1, the prisoners are strongly advised to go to war, fearing that they will soon begin to “turn up the regime” there and it will finally be “red” [i.e. become a 'strict regime', with far tougher conditions].
11/ "At the same time, ordinary prisoners are allegedly being forcibly mixed in with the "offended", who are now being held separately. They threaten in the colony that those who want to avoid this need to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defence."
12/ This follows earlier reports that Wagner has been barred from recruiting prisoners, which was in any case resulting in far fewer volunteers due to news of their catastrophic losses reaching Russia's prisons.
13/ The Russian MOD has reportedly sought to create penal battalions for prisoners, but with voluntary enlistment. It's likely that the results have been disappointing, leading to a change to a more coercive approach.

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More from @ChrisO_wiki

Apr 15
1/ Russian sources complain that they face a "systemic and extremely acute" situation with the supply and capability of drones on the front lines in Ukraine. They say they are still using off-the-shelf Mavics, while the Ukrainians have rapidly advanced their own capabilities. ⬇️ Image
2/ The 'Philologist in ambush' Telegram channel publishes "a signal from the ground from a comrade from an ordinary Russian people's (motorised) rifle regiment":
3/ "I have a few thoughts on our Pokrovsk direction. I don't know about other units, but it's as if we've stopped at the situation from a year ago, when we were mastering the [DJI] Mavics and the FPV [drones].
Read 8 tweets
Apr 15
1/ The Russian naval infantry has introduced its own UAV units to fight in frontline border regions, but senior commanders are reluctant to expand them or pay salaries to the operators. A Russian warblogger complains that "indifferent and useless mediocrities are at the helm". ⬇️ Image
2/ The 'EvilSailor2' Telegram channel is written by a Russian sailor who has become a "trench rat" (i.e. naval infantry) but is still in touch with comrades elsewhere in the fleet. He reports on the Russian Navy's faltering attempts to create land-based UAV units:
3/ "As it turned out, the leadership of the Coast Guard of the FSB Border Service drew conclusions and introduced UAV operators into the ship's staff of the radio-technical combat unit (BCh-7).

Moreover, these operators undergo combat testing on the border in the combat zone.
Read 7 tweets
Apr 15
1/ A Russian warblogger has compiled a series of updates from the Russian perspective of the ongoing fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine. "We're just going like a herd to the slaughter," says one soldier. ⬇️
2/ The Russian blogger 'DONTSTOPWAR' has summarised the current situation at the front based on "information from our fighters on the ground":
3/ "Novopavlivske direction. Came east of Kotlyarivka. Thought we'd advance now. Fuck it. As soon as they started storming, we were met like dogs. Artillery, drones, fire from everywhere. We pressed ourselves to the outskirts and that's it, a meat grinder began.
Read 13 tweets
Apr 14
1/ The air defence system that Russia inherited from the USSR is reported to be severely undermanned and under-equipped, despite the Kremlin's efforts to renovate it. Post-Soviet cutbacks have left it unable to counter Ukrainian drone attacks. ⬇️ Image
2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel (which is continuing to publish despite Telegram handing its original channel over to a Putin crony) reports on the parlous state of Russian air defences. Coincidentally, yesterday Russia celebrated Air Defence Day.
3/ The Soviet Union had more than 250 regiments of specialist Air Defence Radio-Technical Units guarding its airspace along the borders. Only a few now remain. As a source says: "there is no early warning for air defence systems, so all sorts of UAVs easily fly...
Read 16 tweets
Apr 6
1/ Russian soldiers are reported to be causing chaos in military hospitals, threatening to blow themselves up with grenades, attacking and attempting to rape other patients, robbing patients, drinking, starting fights and calling prostitutes to their wards. ⬇️ Image
2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports on a series of cases in which hospitals have been seriously disrupted by misbehaving soldiers. The situation is reported to be deteriorating, as hospitals are overflowing with thousands of wounded men evacuated from Ukraine.
3/ In one of the most dramatic incidents, a military hospital near Solnechnogorsk near Moscow had to be stormed by security forces after a soldier threatened to detonate three grenades he had smuggled in. Hospitals across the region will now be searched for hidden weapons.
Read 9 tweets
Apr 5
1/ Russian commanders are said to be using FPV drones to attack their own soldiers if they fall back from assaults on Ukrainian positions. It's a modern equivalent of the Stalin-era 'blocking detachments' which shot Soviet soldiers who attempted to retreat. ⬇️ Image
2/ Pavel Abrosimov, an ex-convict from Volgograd who is now serving as a stormtrooper, has posted a video via his relatives in which he complains about the behaviour of the leadership of the 33rd Motorised Rifle Regiment (military unit 82717).
3/ He says that after suffering an injury in which his left arm was rendered useless, he was treated in hospital at the end of December 2024, was assigned to fitness category 'G' (temporarily unfit) and was ordered to take 30 days of sick leave.
Read 10 tweets

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