‘We thieves and killers are now fighting Russia’s war’: how Moscow recruits from its prisons

A man thought to be Yevgeny Prigozhin addressing inmates at a Russian prison. Photograph: Twitter

The inmates of penal colony No 8, in the Tambov region 300 miles south of Moscow, rushed to their cell windows when they heard the sound of a helicopter approaching on a late afternoon in July.

“No one ever uses a chopper to get down here. We were curious what the big occasion was,” recalled Ivan, one of the inmates.