Wagner (Вагнер) Recruitment: Lunatics Runing the Asylum

“Wagner” began to recruit patients of neuropsychiatric dispensaries – «Вагнер» начал набирать пациентов психоневрологических диспансеров

Prigozhin’s company – after being denied access to prisoners – switched to IPA patients, reports The Moscow Times. Now, the mercenaries do not ask for certificates from a psychiatrist and narcologist. Information about the readiness to call for war as volunteers of people treated in the PND was confirmed by the recruiters of the Wagner PMC.

The correspondent of the publication also called the hotline of the Prigozhin structure and stated that he was being treated for a nervous breakdown. In response, he was sent a formal instruction stating that Wagner PMCs do not take people with serious illnesses (such as drug addiction or hepatitis), but no form of control is provided: upon arrival at the place, recruits are only taken an express blood test and urinalysis for drugs.

Wagner PMC recruiters explain the reduction in requirements for mercenaries by the fact that they want to “remove unnecessary bureaucracy.”

Having come into conflict with the Ministry of Defense and cut off from the opportunity to recruit prison inmates, the head of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, switched to neuropsychiatric dispensaries.

The announcement that now for entry into the service of Wagner no need for certificates from a psychiatrist and narcologist, as well as a fluorogram, was posted in one of the PMC groups on social networks. Information about the readiness to take on the service of people who were treated in a psycho-neurological dispensary was confirmed by PMC recruiters.

The correspondent of The Moscow Times, under the guise of one of the volunteers, turned to the Wagner hotline and said that he was being treated in a psychoneurological dispensary for a nervous breakdown. In response, they sent a formal instruction with requirements for recruits and offered to evaluate themselves according to it. “Read the instructions, if everything is fine, we are waiting for you,” the PMC recruiter said.

It follows from the instructions that PMCs do not take people “who are ill with serious illnesses, who interfere with the performance of tasks, who suffer from drug addiction, as well as those who have recovered from hepatitis B, C.” However, they do not require any certificates, upon arrival at the place, as follows from the same instructions, a serious medical examination is not carried out: they take only an express blood test and a urine test for drugs.

In the public VKontakte, recruiters explain the sharp decrease in requirements for applicants for the service: “to remove unnecessary bureaucracy.”

Wagner is experiencing a “personnel shortage”: in February, the recruitment of mercenaries in prisons and colonies was suspended. Now the Ministry of Defense is exclusively engaged in recruiting prisoners for the war in Ukraine.

According to American intelligence, by December the number of Wagner fighters reached 50 thousand people, of which only 10 thousand were professional mercenaries, and 40 thousand were former prisoners recruited by Prigozhin.

Since the beginning of the war, Wagner has lost more than 30,000 fighters in Ukraine, including 9,000 killed, John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, said referring to intelligence.

According to him, more than 4 thousand dead fell on December, when the Wagner detachments were thrown to storm Bakhmut. Of those killed, 90% were former prisoners, Kirby said.