Photo: Sverdlovsk region FSIN / VK
Members of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) and the military enlistment office have conducted home visits in the Sverdlovsk region of the Urals, encouraging anyone with a criminal record to sign up to a military contract with the Defence Ministry, Novaya Europe has observed via the regional FSIN website.
During the visits, which occurred on 26 October, FSIN said its employees had explained to people with criminal records the conditions of employment if they signed up to serve in the military, told them about the benefits and payment guarantees, and provided information booklets. Novaya Gazeta Europe has not found a record of FSIN employees going door-to-door in other Russian regions.
FSIN also held group meetings with former convicts in the region earlier this month, in which its staff explained that anyone with a criminal record who served to the end of their contract would then have any record of that conviction expunged.
“Military service under contract means stability, excellent opportunities …, a good standard of living and high social status,” FSIN continued.
A similar meeting with former prisoners was also held in the Irkutsk region of southeastern Siberia on 2 October. On that occasion too, FSIN employees spoke of the benefits and guarantees that came from serving out a contract with the Defence Ministry.
Independent media outlet IStories calculated that as of this month, regional authorities had spent at least 2 billion rubles (€21.5 million) paying to recruit candidates to fight in the war with Ukraine.
In February, Russian human rights nonprofit Crew against Torture established that FSIN and the Interior Ministry had in 2024 begun drawing up special lists of former prisoners “amenable to signing up”. The only people excluded from such lists are the ex-convicts who are over 65, those sentenced to life imprisonment and people with disabilities.
