Russia no longer offers pardons to convicts going to war - ISW

According to Ukrinform, this was reported by ISW.

Analysts believe that Russian officials probably stopped recruiting for Storm-Z units in August 2023 and began recruiting convicts for Storm-V units based on new contract terms.

"Russian officials had previously recruited convicts by promising pardons and six-month contracts, while Storm-V units reportedly do not promise pardons or even parole and extend convicts' contracts indefinitely until the end of the war," the report said.

According to data from October 2023, there are 266,000 people in Russian prisons, which is 54,000 fewer prisoners than in January 2023.

"The loss of convicted servicemen in Ukraine as a result of the grueling assaults and the relatively short terms of their service contracts may have prompted the Kremlin to impose more restrictive conditions of service to keep more recruits at the front in Ukraine," the report says.

The Institute believes that less attractive terms of service contracts in the "Storm V units" may make it more difficult to recruit convicts, although "Russian officials regularly used coercion to force convicts to sign the contract."

In addition, ISW analysts suggest that the Russian authorities have changed the terms of the contracts to remove an additional burden from the Russian budget.

As reported, Russian prisoners who went to fight against Ukraine, instead of being pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin, now receive only conditional release, and they have to serve until the end of the war.

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