A penal colony in central Russia’s Vladimir region. Photo: EPA-EFE/SERGEI ILNITSKY
The Russian authorities hope to find thousands of additional soldiers by recruiting 40% of those currently on trial to go to war, independent media outlet IStories reported on Tuesday, citing lawyers and a source in the Defence Ministry.
Military recruiters will now have to gather information on people on trial who are fit for military service and ready to go to the front, IStories continued, saying this could apply to about 40% of the 60,000 defendants currently facing charges, or close to 25,000 people.
Sources told IStories that approximately 100 defendants could be taken from each pretrial detention centre. With 210 such centres in Russia, that would mean about 20,000 potential new recruits.
A source close to the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces told IStories that the number of prisoners being sent to war was decreasing. “It is a finite resource and the decision to send people on trial to the ‘special military operation’ shows that the number of prisoners available is dwindling,” the source said.
Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, adopted a bill in September allowing those on trial to be sent to fight in Ukraine. Previously, only people whose cases were yet to come to court or those who had already been convicted could be incorporated into the ranks of the Russian military. Although Vladimir Putin is yet to sign the bill into law, preparations are already being made to find willing recruits in the country’s pretrial detention centres, IStories added.
