The State Duma adopted a bill regulating the participation of pre-trial and convicted persons in the SVO

The State Duma on Tuesday adopted in the first reading a bill regulating the participation of those under investigation and convicted in a special military operation (SVO). The deputies, however, were more concerned not with this mechanism itself, but with whether it was worth releasing persons convicted of serious crimes at all. But the chairman of the defense committee, Andrei Kartapolov, reassured his colleagues, assuring that former prisoners return from the front as “different people,” since “it’s one thing to slurp gruel for ten years, and another thing to go on an attack every day.”

A bill establishing in the Criminal Code (CC) and Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) a mechanism for exempting from criminal liability persons who have entered into a contract for military service during the military service period was submitted to the Duma on March 6 by the chairmen of the State Duma and Federation Council committees on state construction Pavel Krasheninnikov (“ United Russia”) and Andrei Klishas, ​​as well as the head of the Duma Defense Committee Andrei Kartapolov (ER). Previously, these issues were regulated by the law “On the Peculiarities of the Criminal Liability of Persons Invited to Participate in SVO,” adopted in the summer of 2023. This document, which was temporary in nature, is proposed to be declared invalid, and the right of citizens to atone for guilt by undergoing military service during the period of mobilization, martial law or in wartime will now receive a “permanent registration” in the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure.

At the same time, the mechanism itself will not change compared to the 2023 law: the opportunity to “wash away guilt with blood” will be given to persons suspected and accused of crimes of minor and medium gravity (with the exception of a number of crimes against public safety and the foundations of the constitutional order), as well as those convicted regardless of on the severity of the crime (except for those who committed crimes against the sexual integrity of minors, against the foundations of the constitutional order and the security of the state, as well as of a terrorist nature). After the conclusion of a military contract, the cases of the suspects will be suspended, and the real punishment of the convicted will be replaced with a suspended sentence. However, complete release from responsibility or from serving a sentence with expungement of a criminal record will occur only in the event of being awarded a state award or dismissal from military service due to age, health, or due to the end of wartime.

The Government Commission on Legislative Activities supported the document, but proposed to establish in it the grounds for resuming the preliminary investigation if the suspect or accused, after receiving a state award, committed a new crime or retired early from military service.

The deputies did not have any conceptual complaints about the current bill, as well as last year’s, but they did have questions.

Thus, Nikolai Kolomeytsev (KPRF) was interested in whether there was already “some kind of analytics on recidivism” of those who were released from prison and participated in the SVO as part of the Wagner PMC. Andrei Kartapolov assured that the percentage of recidivism is “very, very insignificant,” and analytical work, of course, is underway. “We already have established cases where military personnel released from prison signed a contract, fulfilled it, returned, received an amnesty and came back to the armed forces and signed a contract,” said the head of the committee, expressing the belief that thanks to the new law There will be many more such cases.

Yana Lantratova (“A Just Russia – For Truth”) was concerned that the list of “contraindications” for concluding a contract did not include all sexual crimes. “The established restrictions will affect only a few articles against the sexual integrity of minors. For example, there is an article “Forcing sexual intercourse committed against a minor.” That is, a pedophile who served a sentence under this article may be released from liability. But this person can then come to class at school,” the deputy was perplexed, having previously proposed holding “National Warfare Beginning Day” lessons in schools on February 24 with inviting combatants to them. “We’re not letting them go to a resort,” Pavel Krasheninnikov reassured her, nevertheless advising her to make amendments to the second reading.

Oleg Leonov (“New People”) proposed giving the opportunity to atone at the front for persons serving sentences for serious economic crimes. “Even now, people convicted of such crimes have been given the opportunity to perform tasks in the armed forces. “Nothing is impossible here,” Mr. Kartapolov reasoned and also proposed preparing clarifications for the second reading.

“In general, how right is it when those convicted of serious crimes against the person – we are talking about rapists and murderers – enter into a contract to participate in the SVO, receive release from responsibility and the opportunity to continue to be in society?” — Vyacheslav Markhaev (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) asked a more general question. He also asked if there were statistics on people who, after participating in the SVO, return to prison. “The SVO is not over yet, it continues, and these people continue to carry out their tasks there,” recalled Andrei Kartapolov. “By the way, they will all be contracted not as cooks, but in assault units, where they will really atone for their guilt. Now I won’t say the percentage, how many of them come back later, but this percentage is very, very small. There is no need to be afraid of this. In the end, having served his sentence, the criminal still returns to society. And if he completes the task in the ranks of the armed forces, he will return as a different person. Because it’s one thing for him to just sit and slurp gruel for ten years, and another for him to go on the attack every single day. And it is unknown how many of these days he will have left.”

The last argument seems to have finally convinced the deputies, and 326 people voted for the adoption of the bill in the first reading, with no votes against or abstentions.

Ksenia Veretennikova