Russia’s Defense Ministry proposes clawing back part of contract bonuses from convicted soldiers ‘to motivate compliance with the law’
Russia’s Defense Ministry has proposed clawing back part of the federal signing bonus paid to military personnel who are convicted of crimes but are not sentenced to prison. The draft resolution was published on the government portal for draft legal acts. Verstka, an independent Russian news outlet, was among the first to notice it.
Russia's Defense Ministry has suggested that military personnel convicted of crimes and not sentenced to prison should repay a portion of their federal signing bonus. This proposal, published on the government portal for draft legal acts, would affect Defense Ministry and Russian National Guard personnel who received a non-imprisonment sentence and are still serving.
The amount they would owe would be determined by the proportion of months left in their service, with lump-sum payments ranging from 195,000 to 400,000 rubles. The Defense Ministry aims to boost service members' motivation to comply with Russian law, as stated in the resolution's explanatory memo. This move came after a Security Council meeting on April 24, which discussed measures to prevent crimes in the military following the special military operation.
Critics, such as Alexey Tabalov, founder of the human rights project "School for Conscripts," believe the authorities are merely seeking to reduce expenses on payments to service members. Meduza, an independent news outlet, acknowledges the use of AI in translating the source material and emphasizes the importance of accuracy and transparency in their reporting.
Written by urgent.news from Meduza (English)'s reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
