Some of the Wagner PMC recruiting centers, which Yevgeny Prigozhin’s army of mercenaries opened throughout the country, are located in schools and sports clubs where children train. The addresses of the recruitment centers were checked by the Taiga.info journalists.
In Omsk, the publication discovered the Paratrooper club, opened by mercenaries right in the building of gymnasium No. 147. In Barnaul, the Wagner PMC center has an address that matches the address of the municipal children’s educational institution – a branch of the Olympic Reserve Sports School No. 3. The center is called “Combat Gloves and is the oldest boxing club in the city.
In Irkutsk, you can join a PMC through the Profi sports club, which is located in the building of the State Olympic Reserve School. In Krasnoyarsk, mercenaries are recruited and trained at the Siberian Center of Russian Martial Art club, which also trains children as young as four. A similar situation occurs in Chita, where future mercenaries are invited to the Ostrovsky fight club, where children also train.
The press service of Yevgeny Prigozhin announced the opening of recruiting centers in 42 cities of Russia on March 10. She also published a list of addresses. The fact that PMC “Wagner” began to recruit fighters in sports clubs, the day before, the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported. So the mercenaries are trying to replenish the ranks after losing the ability to recruit recruits in the colonies, analysts suggested. In February, Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said his private military company was no longer recruiting new mercenaries in Russian colonies.