The prisoner who spoke with Vazhnyye Istorii recalled that the week before the arrival of Wagner PMC, long visits were banned to the colony. The chief doctor of the Chelyabinsk region had also announced a quarantine. He said four days after that, the phone service in the colony stopped working. And on Oct. 11 at 5 p.m., everyone was taken off work and driven into the units. "The 'squad officers' came in about 30 minutes later and told us to gather in the main square. They brought everyone, including the worst offenders and those held in isolation and in strict detention conditions," the prisoner said. "There were no officers of the penitentiary system visible at all. After an hour of waiting in the square, a green helicopter with a red star on its side flew over our heads at an extremely low altitude and landed behind the colony. An officer in civilian clothes came in initially and began to form us in a semicircle. When he finished his preparations, Prigozhin himself came in..." The Wagner founder said that he was flying around Russia and recruiting volunteers. "He told us the official Russian army is no good, drinking and taking drugs and not wanting to fight. When they retreat or are defeated, they call 'troop regrouping'. And they [Wagner] are instead making good progress. He said he was only recruiting assault squads now. He needs people who are in prison for murder, robbery, and looting. The weak-willed do not survive."