The Russian Government has submitted a bill to the State Duma proposing to expand the group of people eligible to enter into contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence during mobilisation, martial law or wartime. The changes could affect some convicted prisoners, as well as those on trial whose criminal cases have been suspended at the request of the military unit\u2019s command.<\/p>\n
Briefly about the main points<\/strong><\/p>\n The Russian Government submitted Bill No. 1293209-8 to the State Duma on 17 July. At the same time, a related draft amendment to Article 78.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was tabled. As of 22 July, this remains merely a legislative proposal and is not yet law.<\/p>\n The draft proposes removing 11 categories of criminal offences from the list of restrictions on entering into contracts. Under the current rules, such restrictions apply to people with an unexpunged criminal record and, in certain cases, to individuals involved in suspended criminal proceedings.<\/p>\n The proposed changes include the possibility of entering into a contract with individuals charged with membership of a gang or criminal organisation, certain cases of drug smuggling, the organisation of illegal migration by a group of people, and the smuggling of cash and strategic goods.<\/p>\n The list also includes certain offences relating to nuclear and radioactive materials, the security of facilities within the fuel and energy sector, and the loss of documents containing state secrets. At the same time, the amendments do not apply to the organisers or leaders of a gang or criminal organisation \u2014 they concern participation in such groups.<\/p>\n Exceptions also remain for certain types of drug smuggling: the proposal does not cover cases where the offence is committed by an organised group. The ban on contracts remains in place, in particular, for those convicted of terrorism, sabotage, treason, espionage, mercenary activities and sexual offences against minors.<\/p>\n Russia is recruiting people with criminal records to wars against Ukraine<\/a> This is not the first time. The Wagner Group carried out large-scale recruitment of prisoners in 2022. Subsequently, the scheme came under the control of the Russian Ministry of Defence: restrictions on the mobilisation of people with criminal records were relaxed in 2022, and the procedures for enlisting convicted prisoners and those under investigation were formalised in 2023.<\/p>\n In 2024, this procedure was extended to defendants whose cases are currently before the courts. Consequently, the current initiative does not create a new system, but rather narrows the list of criminal categories that have hitherto prevented the conclusion of a contract.<\/p>\n According to figures announced on 4 March by Vladimir Khomchik, Chair of the Russian Federation Supreme Court\u2019s Panel on Military Personnel Cases, in 2025 the military courts handed down more than 5,000 rulings to dismiss criminal cases against individuals who had signed contracts to take part in the war. This figure does not correspond to the number of people who actually arrived at front<\/a>, but it indicates that the procedure is widely used.<\/p>\n In its explanatory note, the Russian Government states that the aim is to broaden the range of individuals with whom a contract may be concluded. The initiative could increase the pool of people available for recruitment through criminal law mechanisms, without announcing any new changes to the mobilisation rules.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The bill before the State Duma expands the conscription of convicted prisoners into the military, but does not provide for the creation of separate penal battalions.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":207433355,"featured_media":25326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_description":"\u041f\u0440\u043e\u0454\u043a\u0442 \u0443 \u0414\u0435\u0440\u0436\u0434\u0443\u043c\u0456 \u0440\u043e\u0437\u0448\u0438\u0440\u044e\u0454 \u0432\u0435\u0440\u0431\u0443\u0432\u0430\u043d\u043d\u044f \u0437\u0430\u0441\u0443\u0434\u0436\u0435\u043d\u0438\u0445 \u043d\u0430 \u0432\u0456\u0439\u043d\u0443, \u0430\u043b\u0435 \u043d\u0435 \u043f\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0434\u0431\u0430\u0447\u0430\u0454 \u0441\u0442\u0432\u043e\u0440\u0435\u043d\u043d\u044f \u043e\u043a\u0440\u0435\u043c\u0438\u0445 \u0448\u0442\u0440\u0430\u0444\u043d\u0438\u0445 \u0431\u0430\u0442\u0430\u043b\u044c\u0439\u043e\u043d\u0456\u0432.","rank_math_title":"\u0417\u0430\u043a\u043e\u043d\u043e\u043f\u0440\u043e\u0454\u043a\u0442 \u0420\u0424 \u043f\u0440\u043e \u0432\u0435\u0440\u0431\u0443\u0432\u0430\u043d\u043d\u044f \u0437\u0430\u0441\u0443\u0434\u0436\u0435\u043d\u0438\u0445 \u043d\u0430 \u0432\u0456\u0439\u043d\u0443","rank_math_focus_keyword":"\u0432\u0435\u0440\u0431\u0443\u0432\u0430\u043d\u043d\u044f \u0437\u0430\u0441\u0443\u0434\u0436\u0435\u043d\u0438\u0445 \u043d\u0430 \u0432\u0456\u0439\u043d\u0443","td_subtitle":"","subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[805619],"tags":[806752],"class_list":["post-25327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-806752"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207433355"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25328,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25327\/revisions\/25328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
The initiative has not yet become law<\/h2>\n
Which categories might be covered by the amendments?<\/h2>\n
Extension of the existing mechanism<\/h2>\n
The practical scope of the tender procedure<\/h2>\n