Russia’s High-Tech Suicide Squads

In the iconic 1987 movie The Running Man, convicted criminals enter a game show to win their freedom by running a gauntlet of armed opponents, watched by television cameras. A British Intelligence report shows that dystopian future has become reality for Russian convicts in 2022 as, with smartphones tracking them and drones watching them, they are sent forward into the ‘meat grinder’ at Bakhmut with the faint hope of surviving and winning freedom.

The convicts are recent recruits to Russia’s Wagner Group, officially ‘private military contractors’ or mercenaries operating independently from the government. In practice Wagner is supported, funded and equipped by the state, in particular the GRU, Russian military intelligence. Russia uses Wagner to carry out foreign policy deniably and at arm’s length. Wagner is active in various parts of Africa and in Syria, where hundreds of Wagner operatives were killed by U.S. airstrikes and artillery in the one-sided Battle of Khasam in 2018.

The group is renowned for its brutality. Wagner mercenaries have committed war crimes in Africa and elsewhere, leading it to be designated a terrorist organization in some places. Wagner has an equally barbaric approach to its own members; punishments reportedly include cutting off recruits’ fingers for unauthorized use of cellphones. A video on social media showed former Wagner member Yevgeny Nuzhin being executed with a sledgehammer for ‘desertion’ after he was returned to Russia in a prisoner swap.

Nuzhin, who was convicted of murder in 1999, was one of many Russian prisoners recruited by Wagner. The process which started in St. Petersburg area, has since expanded to penal colonies in the Urals, Siberia and the Far East, is only open to those convicted of murder and robbery. Recruits are offered high pay, and, if they survive six months, unconditional freedom.

Some 23,000 convicts have reportedly been drafted into Wagner group this way. They get three weeks training at most, and anecdotal reports suggest the rates of desertion, looting and war crimes are all high. Wagner uses them as cannon fodder to soften up Ukrainian defenses or keep them occupied, throwing them forward in the ‘meat grinder’ of Bakhmut. Casualties are, of, course, high.

The traditional Russian method of pushing unwilling soldier forward is with ‘Barrier Troops’ behind them to shoot anyone not joining in the advance, a practice in use since before Stalin’s day. According to the British Intelligence report, Wagner Group are now taking a high-tech approach to compulsion, ensuring they make the best use of the large number of poorly trained convicts reaching the front lines.

“Individual fighters are likely issued a smart phone or tablet which shows the individual’s designated axis of advance and assault objective superimposed on commercial satellite imagery,” according to British Intelligence. “Wagner operatives who deviate from their assault routes without authorization are likely being threatened with summary execution.”

As well as tracking their position by smartphone, Russian officers are now also keeping an eye on their troops progress in real-time via drone.

“Commanders likely remain in cover and give orders over radios, informed by video feeds from small uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs),” according to the report.

Traditionally anyone attempting to retreat was machine-gunned by the barrier troops; these days execution might be carried out by watchful drones.

The forced advances along preplanned routes are often supported with artillery or mortar fire, but armored vehicles rarely join them. While combined arms tactics are far more likely to be successful against heavy defenses, Wagner’s approach has a cold economic logic.

“These brutal tactics aim to conserve Wagner’s rare assets of experienced commanders and armored vehicles, at the expense of the more readily available convict-recruits, which the organization assesses as expendable,” the report notes.

Because the prison recruitment scheme is still recent, it is doubtful whether any of the recruits has made it to the six-month finish line and their liberty. The recruits do not appear to have been given binding legal agreements, just the ‘word of honor’ of their leaders.

In The Running Man, the promised freedom was a lie. Those who survived the gauntlet were killed, with faked photos showing them living happily ever after. Many of the Russian recruits will be smart enough to expect to be cheated, and probably only joined up to desert or surrender at the first opportunity.

At present, Russia has only partial mobilization and has not yet called up all available personnel. But reports about prison recruits and the activities of Wagner group suggest that the situation is bad and deteriorating, that desperate measures are already being taken, and the quality and battlefield performance of Russian troops is only likely to go down from here.