New «penal battalion»: in Russia, convicts will be put on military registration

The Ministry of Defense proposed to put on military registration Russians serving sentences in prison. This follows from the draft government decree prepared by the military department.

Special military accounting

It is proposed to exclude from the «Regulations on military registration» the paragraph according to which prisoners are not subject to military registration. It is planned to call it «special military accounting». Correctional institutions, correctional centers of the penitentiary system and military commissariats at the location of institutions of the penitentiary system will carry out accounting. It is proposed to supplement the section on the order of military registration with the following content:

• military registration of conscripts and conscripts serving a sentence of imprisonment is referred to as special military registration;
• special military registration is carried out by correctional institutions, correctional centers of the penal system;

It is also clarified that the prisoner will not need to appear at the military enlistment office for registration or removal from special registration. Correctional institutions will provide lists of those liable for military service as they are received, staged and released.

Involuntarily, an association arises with the penal battalion of the Great Patriotic War, when prisoners redeemed their guilt with blood.

«The similarity with the penal battalions of the Second World War is conditional and consists only in the fact that imprisonment is replaced by military service in combat conditions. The difference is that during the Second World War it was a regime of serving sentences in special military units. Currently, this is the realization of the right and the provision of an opportunity to redeem oneself by participating in hostilities», — said Yuri Zhdanov, President of the International Bureau of Investigation, Lieutenant General, Doctor of Law.

Will the prisoners increase the size of the Armed Forces?

And still this innovation leaves a lot of questions. First of all, which troops the former prisoners will serve in. It's no secret that many of them are convicted under heavy articles — for theft, drug addiction.

As of today, the total number of prisoners in Russia, according to the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), amounted to 523,701 people. Of these, 94,3% are men. The average age is from 25 to 44 years (53%.). A significant proportion of crimes are theft (23.2%) and drug offenses (11.5%). Repeated crimes, including theft, are more than 65%. How will all this affect the morale and combat readiness of our army?

«It will not affect in any way. A person released from prison is restored to his rights and obligations to the State. If there was no alienation of the rights to hold certain positions. Service in VS is the duty of a citizen, recorded in Constitution. And therefore consent to fulfill it is not required. History with „Wagner“, I think, will not happen again. The army is not a penal battalion,» said Lieutenant General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Alexander Mikhailov.

Why do they want to make prisoners liable for military service and call them up right now?

«The conscription of prisoners will increase the number of armed Forces, the status of a serviceman is not affected in any way. The conscription of prisoners has no influence on combat capability and morale, since military discipline and regulations are the same for all military personnel, regardless of their category and criminal record. There will be no repetition of the penal battalion during the war. In peacetime, convicts were deprived of the right to military service and the performance of military duty. In the conditions of its own, it is reasonably proposed to exclude this exception. This will give the convicts an opportunity to redeem themselves by participating in hostilities, » said Yuri Zhdanov, President of the International Bureau of Investigation, Lieutenant General, Doctor of Law.

It is not yet known whether only those of the prisoners whose age is from 18 to 30 years inclusive, or all in a row, regardless of age, will be called up. However, everyone remembers the experience of the Wagner Private Security Company, which received permission from the Kremlin to recruit prisoners of any age with non-serious articles.

Employees of penal institutions will solve all issues with the registration of a prisoner for military registration. Of course, they know their wards better and they know better who to distribute where. In many ways, it will depend on them where and how the prisoner will serve in case of conscription.