People who left prison less than eight years ago or less than ten years ago can be mobilized in Ukraine.
Russian MPs on Thursday (October 27th) approved amendments to the law authorizing the mobilization of former detainees who have been convicted of serious crimes, who can now be sent to fight in Ukraine.
These include people who left prison less than eight years ago (forserious crimes“) or less than ten years ago (for the “particularly serious crimes“). Until now, the law on mobilization decreed in September by President Vladimir Putin prohibited the recruitment of this type of ex-convict.
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“Defend our country”
From now on, only those who have been convicted of pedophilia, hostage-taking or an attack, trafficking in radioactive materials, espionage or high treason cannot be mobilized, according to amendments voted on Thursday by the Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament. The deputies also voted on Thursday the law regulating the status of volunteers supposed toassist the armed forcesduring armed conflicts or anti-terrorist operations, in the country and outside its borders.
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According to this law, they will notably havethe same status as contract soldiers“. “That’s right: they defend our country“Said the speaker of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, in a press release. The mobilization was decreed in Russia after a series of setbacks for Moscow’s forces in Ukraine and made it possible to recruit more than 230,000 people, according to the authorities’ count.
It also sparked protest demonstrations in some regions and prompted tens of thousands of Russians to leave the country hastily to avoid enlistment. Multiple cases of mobilization by mistake of ineligible men – students, people too old or sick – have also been reported, Vladimir Putin having himself recognized “errors“.
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