In mid-June 2023, social media users spread a comment by Viktor Sadovnichy about how many former prisoners want to enroll in his university thanks to new benefits. We checked whether the rector of Moscow State University made such a statement.
“We now have about 1,000 applications from SVO participants for admission. I won’t hide, there are guys who had criminal records, some accidentally killed their grandmother, some their wife,” Internet users began spreading this statement, attributed to Sadovnichy, on June 19. The message went viral on social networks, it was shared (and continues to be shared) on Twitter, Facebook, "VKontakte" And "Odnoklassniki", as well as in comments under articles on news websites. In Telegram, the message was published, in particular, by the publicist Alexander Nevzorov (680,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) and the channel “Cotton swamp"(343,000).
Prisoners from Russian colonies began recruit at PMC "Wagner" last summer. Six months later it became known about mass pardons of convicted criminals who spent several months in the combat zone. June 13, 2023 Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed, which signs the relevant decrees. According to human rights activists, by the beginning of the year the number of recruited prisoners could reach 50,000 people, Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in mid-June statedthat 32,000 convicts have already returned to civilian life from the front.
Russian legislation provides for a variety of benefits for “SVO participants”, and their list is regularly updated. Information about Sadovnichy’s statement spread amid news that on June 19, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Tatyana Golikova reported on the introduction of quotas for Russian military personnel when entering universities. Relevant amendments into the Education Law were adopted by the State Duma the very next day.
There are no clarifications about prisoners pardoned after participating in the war either in Golikova’s speech or in the amendments approved by the lower house of parliament. In turn, Sadovnichy’s comment regarding the number of applicants and the presence among them “who accidentally killed their grandmother or wife” is not found either on the Moscow State University website or on news resources (even non-authoritative ones). In the university channel Telegram and in the public in "VKontakte“There are also no similar messages or public addresses from the rector.
But this message is easy is discovered on the satirical Twitter account “Boris Abramych”. Judging by the time of publication (June 19 at 18:11 Moscow time), this particular post became the primary source of the news. Its mass distribution on Telegram began a few hours later (“Vatnoye Boloto” published a post with the same text and photo at 21:27), and Alexander Nevzorov provided the story with his commentary on June 20, spurring a second wave of distribution.
Cover photo: Vladimir Butenko, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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