Most of the prisoners returned to Russia during the last exchange were former prisoners - “Important Stories”

Former prisoners made up the majority of prisoners returned to Russia from Ukraine during the last exchange. This was reported by “Important Stories” with reference to the “Our Exit” project.

On January 3, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on the return of 248 military personnel as part of an exchange with Ukraine. According to Our Way Out, 73% of them, that is, 180 people, are former prisoners recruited from the colonies for the war. The project published a name list of these people.

"Important Stories" checked them in random order and found that the list consists mainly of people convicted in recent years. Journalists contacted the relatives of some of them and confirmed that they indeed returned to Russia on January 3.

The publication notes that among those exchanged there are many people convicted of murder, kidnapping, robbery, extortion and other particularly serious crimes.

One of the prisoners who returned to Russia is Anton Meshcheryakov, a former prisoner from a colony in the Leningrad region. Before the war, he was serving a sentence in a case of illegal acquisition and storage of narcotic drugs (Article 228 of the Criminal Code). He was sent to the annexed Donetsk region, where he ended up in a “black” detachment, in which the most resilient men were selected to perform “particularly difficult tasks.” In the winter and spring of 2023, most of the members of the “black” detachment died, “Important Stories” writes. Meshcheryakov was seriously wounded and captured.

Now he and other former prisoners are in a military unit in the Moscow region. A relative of Meshcheryakov told the publication that they would spend about a month there - the FSB would “work with them.”

Another prisoner who returned to Russia is Oleg Shunin, previously sentenced to 11 years in prison for murder. His relative told reporters that he was also in “some unit” in the Moscow region, and that he and other former prisoners were being “interrogated by the FSB.”

A lawyer for the “Call to Conscience” coalition, in a conversation with the publication, said that former prisoners more often end up in assault squads than others, and therefore are more often captured.

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