After mobilizing more than 300,000 soldiers, President Putin eased access to the Russian army. The law now allows ex-prisoners convicted of serious crimes to be called up.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law allowing criminals to be imprisoned. Murderers, robbers and other criminals who have committed serious crimes can now be mobilized. Before this law, it was forbidden to convene such citizens.
However, some categories of criminals still cannot be mobilized. These include child sex offenders, hostage-takers and people suspected of terrorism, high treason or espionage. The new regulation applies to prisoners who have been in prison for less than eight years for serious crimes and those who have been in prison for less than 10 years for particularly serious crimes.
The Interfax agency quoted Putin as saying that 318,000 people had been called up as part of the recently completed partial mobilization. He explained that 49,000 soldiers have already been sent to the front in Ukraine and the rest are "in training". Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said the measure announced on September 21 would affect 300,000 reservists.
After the beginning of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine in February, tens of thousands of Russians fled the country. A second wave of escapes followed the announced mobilization. Thousands subsequently fled to countries such as Georgia, Kazakhstan and the EU. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called the citizens who fled Russia since the beginning of the Russian invasion "cowardly traitors". "Cowardly traitors and greedy defectors have fled to distant lands - may their bones rot abroad," Medvedev wrote in the online service Telegram.
