Human rights advocates claim that Russian jails are actively looking for volunteers to take part in Moscow's conflict with the neighbouring Ukraine.
According to Olga Romanova, authorities were enlisting suspects and defendants with the promise that in return, they would have their criminal cases dropped.
In a Facebook post, a Russian human rights activist residing in Berlin gave examples from pre-trial detention facilities near Moscow.
“But I think it has started everywhere,’’ said Romanova, a specialist on prisoners’ rights in Russia.
Moscow depends on volunteers as general conscription has not been introduced to fill the ranks of its armed forces fighting in Ukraine, in the invasion that began in February.
The fact that in many areas, officials are posting street advertisements for people to fight in the war may indicate a shortage of personnel at the front.
Cities and regions are currently forming their own battalions.
In the Russian judicial system, almost all indictments end in a guilty verdict, meaning suspects and defendants appeared to be given the choice between going to war or going to prison.
The founder of Gulaga.net, a project created to combat violence in Russian prisons, Vladimir Ossetschkin, confirmed the recruitment practices in prisons from France, where he is living in exile.
He said there were indications of the practice from St. Petersburg, Ryazan, Tver and Bryansk.
Russian media have been reporting on the search for volunteers in the nation’s many penal camps since July, according to the Meduza website, which said Wagner mercenary group was recruiting convicts.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wanted Kremlin businessman and backer of Wagner, personally recruited volunteers in prison camps, the Mediazona website reported.
The prisoners were said to have been promised monthly pay of 100,000 roubles (1,625 dollars) along with bonuses, payments to their families in the event of death, and an amnesty.