Recruiting criminals to participate in Russia’s military campaign against Ukraine will not be the preserve of the Wagner mercenary group. The Duma (Lower House of the Russian Parliament) has taken the first step on Wednesday to allow suspects or convicted criminals to join the Army, something so far prohibited by Russian law.
Russian MPs approved at first reading a new rule that will allow the Russian Defense Minister to sign contracts with convicted criminals or suspected criminals. For the provisions to become law, it must be approved in the second and third reading, then it must receive the approval of the Federation Council (Senate) and, finally, the signature of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
“Even people who have committed crimes do not cease to be citizens of the Russian Federation. They have a constitutional right to defend the country in which they were born and raised,” said Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the Duma Defense Commission, one of the deputies who presented the project at the end of May.
Russia does not give figures on the casualties it has suffered in what it officially calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine. The last time it did so was in September 2022, when the Defense Ministry said it had lost 5,937 men.
Still, Russia has shown signs of needing more soldiers on the front lines. Last fall Putin ordered a partial military mobilization of 300,000 reservists. In a meeting with Russian war correspondents in the Kremlin, the Russian president on Tuesday ruled out another mobilization, although he acknowledged that the Russian military now fighting will need a replacement. He pointed out that so far in 2023, 156,000 volunteers have responded to the recruitment campaign of the Russian Armed Forces.
Until now, in Russia having a criminal record did not allow candidates to serve in the army, unlike the Wagner mercenary group, whose ranks in Ukraine have fought convicts and ex-convicts.
Under the changes approved in the Duma, the veto to join the army is lifted for those who are under investigation for having committed a crime, those who are on trial and those who have been convicted. It will not be allowed, however, to those who are already serving a sentence.
The legal initiative establishes that during the period of mobilization, martial law and wartime, citizens who have served their sentences and have a prescribed criminal record may sign contracts with the Russian Armed Forces.
In addition, integration into the Armed Forces will continue to be denied to those who have been convicted of sexual crimes, treason, terrorism or extremism.
On the other hand, those who join the campaign in Ukraine will be exempted from past criminal responsibilities at the end of their contract.
The Wagner Group recruited thousands of inmates in Russian jails last year. A video showed his boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, personally going to a prison to convince inmates to join his private army. Prigozhin announced last February that his company had stopped recruiting inmates, 50,000 as the oligarch acknowledged last month in an interview.
