You have getting Nuzin killed a man during a robbery in the 1990s, and he'd spent two decades

in a Russian prison.

He'd carved out pretty much as decent as life as an inmate who's been in jail for 20 years

could expect in Russia.

He'd managed to get ahold of a cell phone.

That's our colleague, James Marcen.

He was generally respected by other prisoners, the prison guard.

He'd met a woman online and had married her and spent some time with her.

So he had as decent as life as one could perhaps imagine.

Nuzin, who was in his mid-50s, had five years left on his sentence.

But he wasn't confident he'd actually be released.

You know, he said that he was supposed to come out in 2027, but he said the Russian

legal system is capricious.

So you can be scheduled to be released, but he said, if you do something that displeases

somebody, they will find a way to get years out of your sentence.

Then one day last summer, a man walked into the prison and offered him and many other

prisoners a way out.

So the offer is that you come and fight in the war for six months, after which you are

out of jail.

The man was the founder of a Russian paramilitary organization called the Wagner Group.

He said, there are two people who can get you out of here.

One of them is God, and he offers an accident in a wooden box.

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