Russians facing criminal charges offered choice: ‘Go to war or go to court’

October 23, 2024, 9:08 am

Russians facing criminal charges have been told they can join the fight against Ukraine instead of going to court.

The Russian parliament has passed a controversial law that allows people facing legal action to appeal to the courts to have charges against them dropped if they sign a contract to fight in the army in Ukraine.

Russian pre-trial detention centers hope to have around 100 people each enrolled in the army, meaning the armed forces could be reinforced with around 20,000 in total.

The decision to drop charges in exchange for enlistment in the military would still be up to individual judges, but there are no exceptions for crimes that could be pardoned in theory.

Andrey Kartapolov, the deputy who approved the bill in the State Duma, said it would allow criminals to pay their debts to society.

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Russia has already recruited prisoners for the war in Ukraine. Victor Prigozhin, the now deceased former head of the Wagner mercenary group, visited prisons to enroll inmates into his military army.

It’s a practice that has a long history in Russia – the Soviet Union used prisoners to fight the Nazis in World War II.

But it has drawn condemnation from some quarters, with some onlookers saying the law undermines the principles of criminal justice.

Ekaterina Schulmann, from the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, in Berlin, called the measure “a bold legal experiment in society.

“You have to be really desperate to do this – or you have to demonstrate pure legal nihilism and a complete lack of understanding of how the law works and why we need it.

“No society can continue like this: it cannot encourage crime and murder at this level.”

Russia has struggled to find volunteers to fight in the war in Ukraine, with high levels of casualties in the two-and-a-half year conflict.

Pro-Kremlin activists hailed the move to recruit people facing criminal charges as an opportunity for law-abiding members of society to avoid the dangers of war.

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Kirill Fyodorov, a Telegram blogger, wrote: “Front-line and offensive operations are no picnic, and the chances of convicts being killed are very high.

“Are you willing to have your son, brother or husband replace you while attacking open areas full of mines?”

The war proved extremely costly for both sides in terms of casualties.

Estimates of total casualties on both sides of the war vary widely, from around 400,000 Russian soldiers killed and wounded to around 700,000, and between 200,000 and 500,000 Ukrainians.