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Russia Prison Population Falls to Lowest Level in Decades Amid War in Ukraine Recruitment
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Russia’s prison population has fallen to its lowest level since the early 2000s, with officials attributing part of the decline to the recruitment of inmates for military service in Ukraine.
Speaking on May 15, Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) Director Arkady Gostev said the number of people held in Russian prisons and pre-trial detention centers had dropped sharply since before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as reported by The Moscow Times on May 15.
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“If at the end of 2021 there were 465,000 [inmates], now there are 282,000, including 85,000 in pre-trial detention centers and facilities operating under detention center regimes,” Gostev told Russian state news agency TASS, according to The Moscow Times.
The figures indicate that Russia’s prison population has decreased by approximately 183,000 people during the course of the war.
As reported by The Moscow Times, earlier this year, a deputy chairman of Russia’s Supreme Court described the country’s prison population as being at a “record low.” In March, officials reported that around 308,000 people remained in prisons and detention facilities, compared with approximately one million inmates in 2001.
According to FSIN data, the prison population has been steadily declining since 2010, when Russia held roughly 864,000 inmates.
Gostev said the decrease was also driven by broader use of alternative punishments, including compulsory labor and non-custodial sentencing measures.
At the same time, the Russian prison system has become increasingly integrated into the country’s wartime economy. Gostev stated that around 16,000 inmates — approximately 6% of the current prison population — are involved in manufacturing goods for the military.
At the same time, Russian forces are reportedly deploying women with prior criminal convictions in frontline assault operations in eastern Ukraine.
Nazar Voloshyn, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Operational Strategic Group Khortytsia, said Russian command has been forced to redeploy reserves from other sectors after committing a substantial portion of its strategic reserves to offensive operations near Kurakhove, Vremivka, and Pokrovsk.
Voloshyn added that Ukrainian forces had recently received information indicating that women were being used in assault missions within Russian ranks. According to him, the women are former inmates assigned to Russia’s “Storm” assault detachments, units largely composed of convicts recruited from the prison system.
As Russia continues to face heavy losses on the battlefield in Ukraine, authorities are reportedly intensifying recruitment efforts through increasingly coercive methods, including intimidation, deception, and pressure tactics targeting job seekers and potential conscripts.
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