1/ The Wagner mercenary group's 'cock division' now seems to be a reality, judging by a new video of a Wagner convict recruit's debriefing. In the video, the convict talks of how Wagner is mobilising a segregated unit of raped men, who are treated as untouchables. ⬇️
2/ Wagner's head Yevgeny Prigozhin has previously said that he intended to create a 'cock division' made up of such outcast prisoners. He says that he had "recommended" (to the Russian Ministry of Defence?) the creation of such a formation.
3/ In Russia's brutal prison hierarchy, 'cocks' (also known as 'lowered' or 'offended') are the lowest of the low, subject to constant sexual abuse and humiliation. They are literally untouchable, other than while being raped – prisoners regard cock status as being contagious.
4/ The recruit says that during a recruitment exercise in his penal colony, a Wagner representative told his group that "the 'offended', the 'cocks', the representative said another 'cock' will come for them" to recruit them separately.
5/ The mobilised prisoners were told that cocks were "only good for ... digging trenches, toilets." This fits with how cocks are being treated in prison, where they are forced to sleep on the floor next to open toilets.
6/ It also sheds an interesting light into how cocks are to be used in the field. Prigozhin has already spoken of the difficulty in integrating cocks into military operations if other soldiers are not allowed to interact with them.
7/ He points out that other mobilised prisoners would regard it as unacceptable to be asked to give a cock ammunition, share food with them or bandage their wounds. The only people who are allowed to interact with cocks are other cocks. (How orders are given is unclear.)
8/ This explains using a cock representative to recruit more cocks, and also explains why cocks are apparently only being used for menial labour rather than to fight. It's not impossible, though, that cocks would be told to fight, as they would be quite acceptable cannon fodder.
9/ Ironically, though, if cocks really are only being used to dig holes, their untouchable status may well keep them safer than their more privileged counterparts who've repeatedly been thrown into suicidal assaults on Ukrainian positions. /end
(h/t @wartranslated)
(h/t @wartranslated)
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