Russia Adopts Law on Conditional Sentences for Military Service

On Tuesday, the State Duma of Russia adopted a law in its third and final reading that allows individuals who have committed criminal offenses and signed a contract for military service in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to replace their actual sentences with a conditional sentence. This news was reported by Interfax.

The law was developed by Pavel Krasheninnikov, the chairman of the State Duma's Committee on State Construction and Legislation, in collaboration with Andrey Kartapolov, the chairman of the Defense Committee of the State Duma, and Andrey Klishas, the chairman of the Federation Council's Committee on Constitutional Legislation.

“The current law (on the peculiarities of criminal liability for individuals involved in a special military operation) was adopted in 2023, which allowed citizens who have committed criminal offenses to sign a contract with the Russian Armed Forces to participate in the SMO and provided them with corresponding guarantees. The document is temporary in nature and pertains to legal relationships arising before its enforcement. Practice has shown that the mechanism works, and the proposed norms can be coordinated and included in specific articles of the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code,” Krasheninnikov told reporters earlier.

According to him, the law applies to the following categories of individuals: suspects and defendants for minor and medium gravity offenses (excluding certain crimes against public safety, constitutional order, and state security), and convicted individuals (excluding those convicted of crimes against the sexual integrity of minors, terrorism, and crimes against the foundations of constitutional order and state security).

“Thus, the legislative initiative allows military contracts to be signed by those who are under investigation, in trial, or who have already been sentenced,” he noted. He clarified that if a contract is signed with the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the cases of suspects will be suspended, while the type of punishment for the convicted will change to a conditional sentence. Monitoring of their behavior will be conducted by the commanders of the military units.

If such a person commits a crime after starting service under the contract, the court will impose a sentence considering previous convictions. Krasheninnikov emphasized that the project more clearly formulates the principle of voluntary enlistment for these individuals in the ranks of the Russian Armed Forces. Specifically, before the cessation of criminal prosecution, the investigator is obliged to clarify under what conditions the criminal prosecution will be terminated, and individuals subject to criminal liability have the opportunity to refuse, although the criminal case will continue thereafter.

“I want to emphasize that those who have committed crimes under such articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation as crimes against the sexual integrity of minors, terrorism, treason, espionage, and a number of other serious and especially serious crimes will generally not be given the opportunity to sign a contract with the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” Krasheninnikov stated.