The Russian parliament’s lower house, the State Duma, has approved legislation that would give pardons to criminal convicts who volunteer to join Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, a move aimed at boosting troop numbers during the first stages of Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
The legislation sets in law the recruitment of prisoners and criminal suspects for the war in Ukraine, a practice first adopted by the Wagner mercenary force last year before Russia’s Ministry of Defence took over prison recruitment in early 2023, the Moscow Times reported on Tuesday.
