JAKARTA - The jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said on Wednesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Wagner's private military company that took a major part in Ukraine's war, had visited his prisons to recruit inmates.
Navalny, who is being held in the maximum-security IK-6 colony in Melechovo, about 250 km (115 miles) east of Moscow, said an unnamed "eye witness" had described Prigozhin's visit to him.
He said Prigozhin had offered prisoners pardons if they lasted six months with Wagner, and between 80 and 90 of them accepted his offer after being given five minutes to consider it. He did not say when the alleged visit occurred.
Prigozhin, in comments issued by his press service, declined to confirm the visit but said he saw no error from offering "second chance" in life to the detainees.
"No one can rob a person of rights to defend his homeland, his mother and family in any way available," he said.
In September, footage released from Prigozhin, who served nine years in prison during the Soviet era for crimes, including theft and fraud, offered prisoners a similar deal in a prison in the eastern city of Yoshkar-Ola, 760 km (470 miles) east of Moscow.
In his Twitter post, he said recruiting inmates to go to war in Ukraine showed the corrosion of the Russian state.
"Legal facilities are being destroyed in Russia for future defeats in an embarrassing war," said Navalny, who can upload on social media through his lawyers and allies.
In its response, Prigozhin took issue with the fact that many Navalny supporters had been allowed by the state to flee abroad.
"They should have been gathered, formed into a correctional battalion and handed over to me. And don't hesitate, they will all die as heroes," he said.
The Wagner group, which Prigozhin said was founded in 2014, became increasingly prominent during Ukraine's war, including during brutal and long-lasting battles for the small town of Bakhmut.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's loudest domestic critic and tough opponent of war in Ukraine, is currently serving a total sentence of 11-1/2 years on charges including fraud and insults to the courts. Navalny and the Western government say the allegations against him are politically motivated.
19/20 Putin told Prigozhin to create squads of criminals, where they smash heads with sledgehammers and hold public executions. And all this for the purpose of shamelessly snatching a piece of land from the neighboring state.
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) December 21, 2022
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