Russian Authorities Plans to Send 40% of Accused Persons to War

The Russian authorities want to send 40% of accused persons to war, IStories has found out. The State Duma passed a bill allowing contracts with the Defense Ministry at the trial stage at the end of September. Deputies voted for it in the second and third readings at once. Previously, the contract could be concluded only before or after the trial, i.e. with persons under investigation or with those already convicted. Now this “gap” has been eliminated.

The law has not yet been signed by the president, but, as two lawyers working in Russia on criminal cases told IStories, preparations are underway in pre-trial detention centers to send accused persons to war. A corresponding task has also been assigned to military officers recruiting for a contract, the publication’s interlocutor in the Defense Ministry said. According to him, the preparations consist of collecting information on how many accused persons are fit for military service and how many of them are willing to sign a contract: “Of the approximately 60,000 accused persons, 40% are expected to be ‘recruited.’”

According to the interlocutors of IStories, about 100 accused persons may be taken to the war from each pre-trial detention center. There are 210 pre-trial detention centers in Russia, which means that about 20 thousand people may be sent to war. In total, 106 thousand people were in Russian pre-trial detention centers at the beginning of 2024, according to the Federal Penitentiary Service. This number includes not only accused persons, but also persons under investigation, etc. In general, during the year, hundreds of thousands of Russians who were on trial in criminal cases end up in the dock: for example, in 2023, the courts considered criminal cases against 769 thousand people, according to the data of the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court.

New indicators have emerged to assess the performance of investigators and operatives, IStories interlocutors note: “Previously, if a case was not referred to the court, it was a disadvantage for them. But now they have taken a person, persuaded him to sign a contract at once, and they get a plus, with bonuses on top of that. <...> The task is to persuade as many people as possible.” But it happens that investigators are stubborn and do not want to hand over persons under investigation, lawyers say (it may be easier with accused persons in this regard, once the case is sent to court, the stubbornness of the investigator does not matter).

A third lawyer working in Russia noted in a conversation with IStories that even before the law was passed, at least in Moscow, there was no shortage of people willing to sign a contract with the Defense Ministry in any of the pre-trial detention centers. According to the information of lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov, in penal colony and pre-trial detention centers they also “recruit” people to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense by tightening the conditions of detention. Zakhvatov attributes the active recruitment campaign to the reluctance of the authorities to announce a new wave of mobilization.

A source close to the General Staff says that the number of prisoners to be sent to war is decreasing. “This is not an infinite resource and the decision to send accused persons to the special military operation indicates that the inflow of prisoners is being depleted, it is no longer the same as before. Those convicted on non-severe articles, those who do not have long to stay in jail, are not very willing to go to war (for comparison, in Ukraine they do not attract to the war those serving sentences on serious articles and this has drastically reduced recruitment). In Russia, a significant part of this contingent has already been raked out, so we have to take potential prisoners at the entrance,” says the source. He notes that sending 40% of the accused persons to war “is an official promise, possibly based on the experience of recruiting under-trial detainees and prisoners.” Does this bring a new wave of mobilization? “It depends on whether the Kremlin has the patience. For now, the authorities are okay with the advance of troops at 400 meters per day and the gradual grinding down of the Ukrainian army, but things could change,” the source believes.

Featuring Yulia Starostina