Vladimir Putin Presents Bravery Medals To Convicted Felons Forced To Fight On Frontlines Of Ukraine In Exchange For Their Freedom
Jan. 11 2023, Published 5:15 p.m. ET
Vladimir Putin has started awarding bravery medals to the convicted felons recruited to help fight in Ukraine in exchange for full pardons, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The 70-year-old Russian leader handed out the first medal this week to a previously imprisoned Armenian man named Hayk Gasparyan.
Gasparyan had been convicted of armed robbery in 2022 and sentenced to seven years behind bars after robbing a man of almost $4,000 at gunpoint outside a bank in Moscow. He was then freed from prison and offered a full pardon if he fought in Ukraine and survived for six months.
Upon completing his six months in Ukraine, the 31-year-old convict was officially made a free man and his criminal record was scrubbed clean.
Putin and Gasparyan were seen together earlier this week for a ceremony held in Rostov-on-Don, a Russian city just 50 miles from the Ukrainian border.
During the televised broadcast, Putin awarded the 31-year-old former convict an Order of Courage for “battlefield bravery.”
“I serve Russia and Wagner,” he told Putin after receiving the bravery medal.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Gasparyan is just one of the tens of thousands of convicts recruited to fight on the frontlines of Ukraine in exchange for their freedom from prison.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was dubbed “Putin’s chef” before becoming chief of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, is reportedly the man tasked with recruiting the violent convicts whose crimes allegedly include murder, rape and even cannibalism.
“Those who go through an interview and then have doubts – they don't need to go,” Prigozhin, who is now allegedly feuding with Putin over the war in Ukraine, was recorded saying in November. “We only need those confident that they want to fight, who like to fight, who need it, and whose physical shape allows for it.”
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“If you walk towards a paddy wagon, and change your mind, I'll treat it with respect,” Prigozhin continued. “This is not cowardice, but a conscious decision. But if you do go with us, there is no way back. No-one will come back to jail.”
Even more shocking are reports suggesting Putin has now started recruiting female prisoners to serve as snipers and saboteurs in Ukraine, a seemingly desperate move by Putin to make up for the more than 100,000 troops he has so far lost in the ongoing war.
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