Almost all of the soldiers involved in the biggest threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime ever were masked and unidentifiable.
However, reports seen by Reuters suggest that some of the soldiers had served prison sentences, suggesting that the Kremlin’s decision to allow Mr Prigozhin to recruit thousands of soldiers from prisons across the country over the past year may have been a mistake.
Wagner group fighters seized control of the port city and logistics hub of the war in Ukraine on Saturday morning.
The leader of the private military force, Yevgeny Prigozhin, ordered his troops to march on Moscow before turning back after failing to overthrow Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, a longtime rival of Prigozhin.
Wagner fighters, including former prisoners, have been fighting in Ukraine since Russia began its special military operation in 2022, especially in the city of Bakhmut, where some of the bloodiest battles and one of the few successes in Russia's long war took place.
Reuters reported that many former prisoners of war remained loyal to Prigozhin, some of whom said he had given them a second chance at life. Those who survived at least six months of fighting in Ukraine were pardoned by Putin through a secret decree.
In the case of the individuals identified by Reuters , that loyalty runs deep enough to have led them to join a coup and what they will do next as President Putin seeks to defuse the crisis.
These soldiers were given the choice of leaving Russia for Belarus where Mr Prigozhin was expelled, joining the regular army, or returning to civilian life.
Reuters contacted three former prisoners, but they did not respond to social media messages.
The Russian Defense Ministry, the criminal police and the Wagner organization have not responded to requests for comment.
The fate of prisoners
The Wagner group withdrew from Rostov late on Saturday after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko brokered a reconciliation deal.
One of the Wagner soldiers who left the city that evening was Dmitry Chekov, 25, a Rostov resident who had been convicted four times for theft and drug-related crimes.
He was part of a group of Wagner soldiers who boarded a military vehicle, ready to leave the city, and was the only one seen as he posed for photos with the press and interacted with local residents.
Facial recognition software linked him to an account on VKontakte, a Russian Facebook-like social network, under the name Dmitry Chekov.
Identity documents reviewed by Reuters show that Dmitry Chekov was sentenced to six years and five months in prison for three separate crimes by a Rostov court in 2015. He has served most of his most recent sentence of three years and four months for drug possession until January 2022.
An anonymous relative confirmed to the press that he had served his sentence.
In September, Russian media reported that Prigozhin had been present at several prisons in the Rostov region, recruiting more than 1,000 prisoners to serve as Wagner soldiers. Chekov’s relatives did not know he was with Wagner but confirmed his identity after seeing some photos from Reuters .
In another photo of a Wagner member published by the state news agency TASS , a tall and bearded man is pictured walking down the street with his comrades, carrying a hat and rifle.
The man was identified by facial recognition software as 33-year-old Sergei Shirshov, from the city of Saratov, on the Volga River. On VKontakte, Shirshov's profile picture is a badge of the Wagner organization.
Court records obtained by Reuters show that Shirshov was sentenced to seven years in prison for armed robbery by a Saratov court in 2019, and he had previously been convicted of similar charges.
According to public data, Mr. Shirshov served his sentence at Penal Colony No. 10 in the Saratov region. Local media reported that Mr. Prigozhin arrived at Penal Colony No. 10 in October 2022.
Another Wagner soldier photographed in Rostov was identified by facial recognition as Roman Yamalutdinov, a native of Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region.
Yamalutdinov, 31, has been convicted at least twice since 2017, according to court records seen by Reuters . He has previously served sentences for drink-driving, auto theft and assaulting a police officer.
In a case filed by the criminal justice agency in 2020, Mr Yamalutdinov was described as “a malicious individual who repeatedly violated” prison regulations and was ordered transferred to a harsher penal colony.
Reuters could not confirm whether Yamalutdinov was in prison when Prigozhin began recruiting for Wagner, and his most recent sentence ended in 2021.
However, online Russian court records are not entirely complete. Prisoner rights activist Olga Romanova said that Mr. Prigozhin was present in Krasnoyarsk region prisons in October and November 2022.
Nguyen Quang Minh (according to Reuters)
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