Smart move. Taking people who have killed, and probably want to kill more, then basically offered nothing (probably no bonus or anything to prisoners can enjoy now) in exchange to go fight in probably the most dangerous battles. While fighting, they could do some crazy shit that will bring fear to their enemies. If they die, the country loses the obligation of paying for a criminal, so they will fight like no other because they are literally fighting and risking their lives for their own freedom.

This has been going on for a while, and it turned out not to be a good idea to have these scumbags mixed in with the regular troops (and I think that's how it's done, there's no special penal legion stuff). As it happens, all the tacticool guys who have volunteered and trained with firearms on a regular basis have fared much better than the vetshit boomers who haven't touched a gun in decades, yet those boomers had a field day bullying the younger folks for showing off with all that "fancy crap". But it's understandable, they're old and unwilling to change and admit that their old ways aren't as effective anymore. Now imagine that instead of backward boomers doing the bullying, you have ex-convicts getting uppity and being insubordinate. It can also motivate the zogbots to incriminate innocent citizens just to send them to the field as extra meat.

The Wagner Group promised a pardon to prisoners who fight in Bachmut, 19,000 of them died. The new law delays the punishment until after they served in the army. It doesn't promise a pardon but a reconsideration of the punishment depending on their behavior while in the army.