The russian Federal Penitentiary Service of Sverdlovsk Oblast announced that 250 prisoners would be employed at the "Uralvagonzavod" plant to repair tanks for the russian army.
As follows from the message, the prisoners will work as welders, locksmiths, machine tool operators, machinists at milling machines, grinders, lathes, and crane operators. Given that, 4% to 20% of their salary will be withheld "in favor of the state". Such employees will not be allowed to work on classified equipment.
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This announcement comes up quite expected: in the last two months, 23,000 prisoners "vanished" from russian prisons, and the only explanation for this is recruitment to the PMC "Wagner".
As of November 1, the total number of prisoners in the russian federation was almost 400,000, and it looks like the Kremlin decided to put this "human resource" to use – not only for warfare in the frontline but for labor at defense industrial capacities, too.
As a reminder, in late September 2022, "Uralvagonzavod" was planning to work in three shifts but the high-ups of the company admitted they had not had enough personnel. To have it covered, they intended to attract retired "industry veterans" or literal "passer-bys" hired from the streets.
So it seems two months was not enough for the russian tank industry flagship to find personnel, and they resorted to prisoner labor.
Essentially, russia is reviving the old Soviet practice of Gulag by involving prisoners in mobilization works. The next step in this sequence must be to return to "sharashkas" where scientists and designers demoted to a status equal to prisoners will work on new "wunderwaffes" for the russian army.
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