On Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin signed legislation allowing defendants in criminal cases to sign military contracts and be deployed to fight in Ukraine, further expanding Russia’s recruitment pool for its ongoing war.
Under these new amendments, defendants who agree to serve in the military can have their criminal cases suspended or even dismissed at the request of a military unit. Additionally, if they receive state awards for their performance in combat, their criminal records may be expunged.
However, the list of crimes eligible for this amnesty does not include serious offenses such as treason, espionage, terrorism, and sex crimes.
This follows a similar move made in March when Russia passed laws allowing the recruitment of convicted prisoners and detainees whose cases had not yet reached court.
The lower-house State Duma explained that the changes address a gap in current legislation, which previously prevented defendants from signing military contracts while their cases were in court.
“These amendments will broaden the pool of contract servicemen for our Armed Forces,” said Andrei Kartapolov, chair of the State Duma’s Defense Committee.
According to a Defense Ministry source cited by investigative outlet IStories, Russia plans to recruit roughly 40% of the country’s 60,000 criminal defendants for military service in Ukraine.
The practice of recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine was pioneered by the Wagner mercenary group in 2022, before Russia’s Defense Ministry took control of prison recruitment last year. Prisoners serving in the war have reportedly suffered some of the heaviest casualties among Russian forces.
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.