Russia wants to allow defendants to fight in Ukraine

Russian legislators assumed A bill introduced Tuesday would allow defendants to serve in the military, closing a legal loophole that previously limited conscription to suspects and convicted individuals.

The Lower House of the State Duma said his deputies voted for two bills that, if enacted, would allow defendants to sign military contracts or be mobilized.

“The criminal proceedings against these persons will be discontinued and the coercive measures (house arrest, prohibition of certain actions, bail, pre-trial detention) will be lifted,” the Russian parliament said.

The defendants' Criminal records can be erased when receiving state awards or when leaving the military due to age, injury or the end of mobilization.

The draft laws will now be voted on in the upper house of the Federation Council. They are then expected to be signed by President Vladimir Putin and put into effect.

The first law allowing the conscription of convicted and suspected criminals into the Russian army passed Mid-2023. Putin, who confirmed that he had pardoned prisoners who had fought in Ukraine, at the end of 2022 allowed the mobilization of prisoners on parole.

Before these laws formalized prisoner recruitment, the Wagner mercenary group had begun recruiting prisoners in mid-2022 and offering them pardons and expungement of criminal records in exchange for military service.