comment: >
  
  Of course it's a war, stinky sensitive Ukraine took Mr Putin's special operation too seriously and made it one! 
  - pro war Russians probably
context: I'm wondering if this is just a propaganda stunt by the Kremlin to recruit more prisoners, by trying to show they're keeping their word.  
  I suspect that not all prisoners who joined the army will be treated this well, and many won't even survive the war to enjoy any freedom. >
  
  Most are getting recruited into Wagner, which has spent a lot of the recent months fighting in WW1 style conditions in Backhmut and taking heavy casualties, so you're probably right in that the survival chances of these prisoners is very low. Especially if the rumours of the Wagner forces using the prisoners as glorified meat shields are anything to go by. >
  
  You could be right. The BBC had this quote “Wagner soldiers openly advance under fire towards us even if they're littering the land with their bodies, even if out of 60 people in their platoon only 20 are left. It's very difficult to hold against such an invasion. We weren't prepared for that, and we're learning now," Commander Skala says.” >
  
  They've killed so many that they're getting tired of killing them. >
  
  I remember seeing an interview with a Ukrainian soldier who was recounting a time that he killed a Russian who stormed their position while riding a bicycle with an AK in a basket. He had other stories of men acting like they were in a movie and getting gunned down while acting like idiots. He said they killed soldiers one after another who were trying to climb a ladder. It's like they didn't even understand what was happening. 
  They laughed for a bit about it all, then everyone got really sad. You could see it in their eyes. War is awful. All the time. >
  
  That that is the "best" outcome for those Ukrainian soldiers is fucking sad. >
  
  War is hell. >
  
  War isn't Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse. - Abraham Lincoln, Paris, 1867 >
  
  “Shit don’t always be like it is, but sometime it do.” 
  -Niccolò Machiavelli, 1519 >
  
  People don't think it be like it is
  But it do >
  
  
  "They [completed] their contract. They worked with honor, with dignity," Prigozhin told reporters, adding that two-dozen prisoners are among the first group to be pardoned.
  
  The article doesn't identify any specific prisoners by name
  Are they just pardoning their dead bodies to be buried in civilian cemeteries?
  To me, it just seems like a PR stunt in order to get more prisoners to sign on voluntarily >
  
  You have seriously got to wonder though what these "contracts" look like if people are being released now. Screams Propaganda like you said.
  How long could they have possibly served to be released now? Would it be related to how much time you have left on your sentence, because you would think they still need those bodies on the frontline and that this length of service isn't really militarily practicable? Must be the least violent prisoners who signed on and the best story the Kremelin could sell.
  Feels alot like these criminals are cannon fodder between the conscripts coming of age. >
  
  From what I recall from earlier reports, nothing was ever written down. These were entirely verbal agreements, many reports of prisoners never getting paid anything.
  Most immediately die, and the ones that didn't surrender to Ukraine at their first chance, escaped and were the subject of a manhunt.
  This definitely has to be some kind of PR stunt so Prigozhin can play make believe that he still has any residual value left to Putin and/or the Kremlin, hoping desperately to refill the ranks of Wagner by duping prisoners with the idea that some prisoners made it out >
  
  Verbal contracts. Lmao.
  Considering the reports of barrier troops that are needed to control these renegades as well as violent sprees and attacks on commanding officers/executions you have to wonder if this actually a net gain at all for the Russian military.
  And i think I have to agree with regarding the PR from Prigozhin. You have to wonder if Prigozhin's time is running out and why he needs stories like this. In WWII it appears that Shtrafniki squads were much more effective than Wagner is which is no doubt where this idea came from. >
  
  
  Verbal contracts
  
  That just reminded me of an old bit of awful trivia that I once read. In 17th century France, a common sentence handed down for a large number of crimes would be to serve X number of years as a galley slave manning the giant oars.
  It was nearly always the case that your length of sentence handed down by the court was meaningless. Nobody on those ships kept track of things like that. Nor did they care to. It was just kind of understood that any sentence to work the galley oars was a death sentence.
  Your odds of surviving even a full year on the oars were extremely small. Mainly due to horrific sanitary conditions, poor diet, and lack of modern medicine. So you'd row for a few months or whatever, and likely shit yourself to death, or suffer some other similar fate. >
  
  This is the cheery content I'm looking for to help me feel grateful for living today rather than then, despite the generally bleak forecast for human civilization in the coming decades >
  
  If you want some more incentive just look into what any countries punishment for high treason was during the middle ages. Being Hanged, drawn, and quartered (the British punishment) was probably the most brutal I could think of.
  They hung you until near death. Then they would  meticulously disemboweled you on a special wheel that would be used to burn your insides while you watched. You would still be able to feel them burning your guts as well. They would also frequently cut off your "manhood" and burn it along with your guts. Then if you were still alive they would quarter you. That was the punishment for betraying the king/queen.
  Edit: All of this was of course done in front of a cheering crowd. >
  
  I'm from Dublin and live close enough to the church yard where this happened to Robert Emmett in 1801. Hanged, drawn, and quartered. A grisly day's entertainment for / warning to the masses >
  
  But you've inspired enough gratitude in me to help me power through a covid/flu/RSA-ridden January >
  
  Putin: Civilians should join the war.
  Civilians: Too dangerous! We’ll stay home.
  Putin: Now home is dangerous. >
  
  12D chess >
  
  The group is going to be interviewed on the the steps of the Kremlin, first words out of their mouths will be, "The war..." and then it's right back to the front lines. >
  
  In practice Russian's are actually allowed to publicly call it a war, if they are pro-war. >
  
  Even Putin called it a war.