Nope! They just extend those 6 months forever, and if you say no? Sledgehammer time!

Some Wagner commander escaped to Norway and tried to get asylum because of that.

If they survived the Ukranians, im betting they didnt survive the 2nd line forces ready to shoot their comrades.

Imagine prison being so bad there that knowing you might not survive six months on the Frontline is a better option.

It's like that Lord of the Rings second dinner meme but with second conscription

Or the pardon doesn't mean they get to stop fighting, it just means they are pardoned for their crimes.

No one gets out.

There are videos of Wagner sending them home with a hearty goodbye, this isnt true.

Wagner has more recruits than they need currently as they only have 1 base and word of their successes spread.

Russia needs cannon fodder. Someone at Wagner comes up with the idea, it gets presented to Putin, he okays it and has it written into law.

Because the owner of the PMC is one of Putin's close associates.

Nothing can happen, especially something like this, in Russia without Putin being involved. He's told the FSB to leave Wagner alone, much to their control freak annoyance. Wagner are linked to the military and GRU, who the FSB also dislike.

Basically, Wagner is called a private army but actually do Putin's bidding through the GRU but if any questions are asked Putin has plausible deniability kind of like saying "It's nothing to do with us. They're not part of the military." We know it's a lie it's so obvious, they've been seen mixing with ordinary Russian troops, but it's one of the games Putin plays. Using plausible deniability also how Putin gives orders in the Kremlin.

That is a double edged sword though. In a different conflict, when one Wagner group got too close to an American outpost the Americans contacted their Russian counterparts who disowned all knowledge of them. The Wagner group didn't turn back so the American troops opened fire with everything they had. They heard the radio chatter of the men as they realised the Russians had left them to die rather than to own up to being associated with them. They're very expendable.

The reason for using prisoners and mercenaries in this current war is because Putin believes the Russian public won't care if that type of people get killed rather than the general Russian public.

They're also being used as cannon fodder. Some prisoners are given a tiny bit of ammo, just enough to make a noise and attract attention, and then sent out. Their sole purpose is to get shot by the Ukrainians and thus give away their positions to the Russians who sent the prisoners out to be massacred. They don't give them much ammo as there's no point, they really are meant to get shot. If they try to escape they're publicly executed in a rather gruesome way.

Same reason private security companies have the power to arrest people on, for example, public transport, or run prisons. Money money money, money!

It's president pardon being issued to them.

Allegedly, Putin issues these pardons. Probably, a lot of time will pass before we will know the full story.

I can see the starship trooper style doing my part propaganda being passed out to prisoners.

I also love the usage of 'rapidly'.

Look closely at the photos, guys. That plot of cemetary is about the same size as only two normal houses properties. It's got 14x17 = 238 graves in it as of somewhere in the beginning of january, and 50 graves end of November. This is less than 200 dead in a bit over a full month. 7 dead per day is mere peanuts compared to how many really die at the front.

Those aren't all the Wagner soldiers, just a fraction.

Sure, those graves loolk real cheap: a colored drape with flowers, and a cheap wooden post and signboard with a bit of paint. But even then, given that they don't even give new "unwanted groups (prisoners, etchnic subgroups, etc.)" Russian soldiers much more than a couple days of training (if even that) plus a rusty old gun with only a few bullets, and no water no food no armor next to nothing, I don't expect Wagner to pay anything to put up nice looking graves for what they see as mere "cannon fodder". Those graves are for the "real" hardened Wagner boys that died, not for the fodder.

If all the dewad since the start of this stupid atrocious war were there, the graves would fill up (assuming a conservative 60000 dead --- not just specific Wagner loosses, though) then you'd need over 2400 of such cemetary plots. Take the *full* image, make it about 5 times wider and 5 times talller (i.e. 25 times that image), and that would be much closer that the minimum "real" size of Russian dead troops.

From Google Maps in Satellite View, that little plot is about 20 meters x 40 meters = 800 square meters, for about 250 graves. Let's be a tiny bit conservative and use only 3 square meters per grave. So for 60000 graves you'd need 180000 square meters, or a square cemetary about 425 meters on a side.

That's huge and the reality is probably even worse.

Fortunately for Poo-tin's army leaders, they don't have to pay much to bring back and bury all those dead, as they just leaves most of the dead right on the battlefield and pocket the money instead!

Typically in a war there are more wounded than dead, right? I'd be more interested in knowing where all the wounded are. Nobody in Russia seems to have seen tons of wounded soldiers brought back to Russia hospitals, so... Where are they all?

I suppose for Russia maybe there are next to no wounded: You're still alive? Well... the oligarchs already pocketed all the army's medical budget, ya know, o just plug that tampon in there to stop the bleeding, and just go back to fight! Even if you're three-quarter-dead, at the very least you should just go take another a bullet or two for our Glorious Mother Russia! Be hopeful: If you survive 6 months of this Hell on Earth total nightmare, you'll get a Lada.

(and the don't tell you thery fully expect to have to really give only about 200 Ladas, tops. Errr... only 50, really, because the corruppted military leaders will want to give some of those Ladas to their kids and friends).