ChrisO_wiki Profile picture
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

Jun 17
1/ Iran's rapid military collapse is being blamed by Russian warbloggers on rampant corruption under the country's notionally Islamist regime. Everything is for sale like in "the late USSR", they say, which has allowed the Israelis to infiltrate Iran with ease. ⬇️ Image
2/ Dmitry Steshin writes:

"The West has found Iran's solar plexus and is hitting it precisely and methodically. Of course, it is being helped from within. Who? Why? I'll explain based on my personal impressions."
3/ "It is generally accepted that Iran is ruled by the 'ayatollah regime', it is solid, there are no cracks. This is both true and false. Iran, as it seemed to me, is a country torn apart by internal contradictions, like the late USSR. I lived there.
Read 31 tweets
Jun 16
1/ A single Russian brigade has lost more than 12,000 men – more than five times its authorised strength. Its soldiers say they are subjected to violence, abuse, torture and robbery by their own commanders, who throw them into bloody attacks where thousands die. ⬇️ Image
2/ The 15th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade is based in the Samara region, but recruits from across Russia. Personnel from at least 77 regions have been listed as missing or dead, with the largest number being from the Volga Federal District and the Astrakhan region.
3/ At least 12,689 soldiers from the 15th Brigade have been listed as missing or killed in social media posts. At least 7,436 were killed, and another 5,253 are reported to be missing. This contrasts with a normal peacetime establishment of around 2,000 personnel.
Read 29 tweets
Jun 15
1/ Russian warbloggers say that Russian army commanders are causing unnecessary problems for other units, and heavy casualties for their own men, by lying about their successes. This exposes the flanks of neighbouring units and causes men to be sent into unsupported assaults. ⬇️ Image
2/ The Russian army has had widespread problems with commanders falsely claiming to have captured objectives – a practice dubbed "taking on credit" – since the early days of the war in Ukraine.
3/ False reporting often takes the form of sending a few expendable men forward to plant a flag on a building in a Ukrainian-held settlement, so that a drone can video it for a report of a successful capture to be sent to HQ. This is termed a "photo fact".
Read 38 tweets
Jun 15
1/ On preparing a new member of a Russian stormtrooper unit, to which he has been assigned as a punishment, for his first assault mission: ⬇️ Image
2/ "The smell of pine needles, dust, exhaust fumes. The noise of the engine, the rustle of gear, the jingle of all sorts of shiny things falling into a bag. The dry sound of phones being lowered into a lock box. The crunch of automatic rifles being checked.
3/ "The quiet curses of the company commander, yanking a garish, bright Esmarch harness off the shoulder of one of the careless newbies in the assault.
Read 18 tweets
Jun 14
1/ The imprisoned Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin has given a gloomy prediction of the likelihood of Russian success in the Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine. They're well-defended by the Ukrainians, he says, while Russia has insufficient forces to capture them. ⬇️ Image
2/ Girkin writes:

"The offensive in the Sumy region had been in preparation for a long time. The enemy knew about it very well, the enemy began building defensive structures against this supposed offensive several months ago, built several defensive lines to the east of Sumy."
3/ "And now they are already reporting construction to the west – well, apparently because everything they could build to the east has already been built.

The distance from the front line to Sumy is now about 20-25 km.
Read 14 tweets
Jun 14
1/ Corrupt Russian officers are suspected to be selling information to Ukraine, contributing to the destruction of high-value assets such as this Iskander missile launcher, according to a Russian journalist. ⬇️
2/ On 5 June, Ukraine destroyed an Iskander ballistic missile launcher and its rockets. According to Russian journalist Maxim Kalashnikov, the launcher was destroyed and 8 personnel from the 26th Missile Brigade (military unit 54006) were killed.
3/ Kalashnikov says that “the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Security Service of Ukraine [are working] to actually knock out our operational-tactical missile units, those same Iskanders. They started hunting them.”
Read 10 tweets

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