Russia’s State Duma has adopted a law that allows prison convicts to sign military service contracts during mobilisation, martial law, and the time of war, as per the Duma database.
The law says that the people convicted for non-grave crimes may now sign contracts for military service. This also includes people outside prisons who have a non-expunged criminal record.
People convicted for certain political felonies, such as terrorism, treason, extremism, sabotage, and other, will not be allowed to use this regulation. The procedure of contract signing will be defined by the Defence Ministry. All convicts with a military contract will be exempted from serving their sentence, i.e., pardoned.
The bill’s explanatory note said that during the Ukraine war, there has been “a significant number of individuals willing to sign up for contracted military service, including people not legally allowed to do so,” such as convicts.
The bill was introduced to the lower house of the Russian parliament on 31 May.
