At the end of January 2023, the press service of the Concord company published a letter from Prigozhin to State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin regarding combatants who had previously been convicted and served sentences in colonies.
“Those people who daily risk their lives and die for their homeland in the most dangerous sectors of the front are presented as second-class people, denying them the right to atone for their guilt before society,” the letter says.
Prigozhin stated that “there are separate media outlets, bloggers and telegram channels that are openly discrediting volunteers” – and this, in turn, “helps the enemies of the state” and asked for an amendment that would prohibit “publications of a negative nature and any criticism of the participants of the SVO, and also information regarding their past offenses with penalties of up to five years in prison.”
