A new law was passed that will not allow Russians to easily avoid military service.
The lower house of the Russian parliament passed a new law according to which men in Russia will no longer be able to avoid military service so easily. With 394 votes in favor and one abstention, the law was adopted according to which the call-up to the army is considered completed as soon as it appears on the government portal Gosuslugi.
Until now, invitations to the army in Russia had to be submitted personally or through an employer. This meant that many avoided conscription by moving away from where they were registered or simply not answering the door when military officials called. An estimated 700,000 Russians have evaded conscription since Vladimir Putin announced mobilization. Many fled to Kazakhstan, Serbia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Georgia. During the first wave of mobilization, dramatic footage of military officers arresting men on the streets of Russian cities, trying to hand them drafts for the army, went around the world. Numerous videos have appeared on social media showing men running away from military officers at subway stations or wrestling with them on the floor of shopping malls.
According to the new rules, electronic invitations to the army will be issued through the Gosuslugi portal, which is normally used for all kinds of government payments and services, including paying taxes, issuing passports, ordering medical examinations and many other things.
New rules
Men aged 18 to 27 will be called up for military service in Russia, but reservists can also get it. Under the law, the civil service will have to provide military offices with the personal information of eligible men, including identification documents, tax numbers, driver’s license information, phone numbers and other information. Universities, employers, hospitals and clinics, government departments, law enforcement agencies, election commissions, and tax authorities are also required to send data on eligible men to the military.
“The invitation is considered received from the moment it is sent to the personal account of the military conscript”, Andrey Kartapolov, chairman of the Defense Committee in the Russian Parliament, said on TV. From that point on, the recruiter will need to report to their local recruiting office. Citizens who do not appear will be prohibited from traveling abroad and they could face a number of other limitations. For example, they won’t be able to buy or sell real estate, their driver’s licenses will be revoked, they won’t be able to register small businesses or work as freelancers, they won’t be able to get credit or credit. Those who delete their accounts on the Gosuslugi website will be considered as those who they avoid mobilization and can be arrested and punished. Military services can also register recruits in their absence, rejecting the previous practice of recruits and recruits having to appear in person to sign forms and undergo a medical examination.
Although conscripts are not supposed to be deployed to combat zones, including Ukraine, those who have already completed mandatory military service said they were under strong pressure from their superiors to sign military contracts making them eligible for frontline deployment.
The new rules indicate Russia’s need for more troops after the mostly ineffective winter offensive, which, despite heavy losses, achieved little success, and ahead of the expected new Ukrainian counteroffensive. According to leaked US documents, it is estimated that between 189,500 and 223,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in Ukraine since the war began.
Russia’s defense ministry recently recruited hundreds of prisoners, offering them 18-month contracts to fight in the war in exchange for a pardon, after Wagner’s mercenary group was banned from recruiting in prisons. The military also recently began offering Russian passports to foreigners joining the Russian armed forces and launched a voluntary recruitment campaign.
The counteroffensive requires new soldiers
Ukraine is also facing a troop shortage, with between 124,000 and 131,000 soldiers killed or wounded since the invasion began, according to recently leaked US documents, five times more than Kiev publicly claims. Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive will require new soldiers and more experienced troops to have recently been dressed in western gear. Ukraine also adopted new rules for easier and faster mobilization of men of military age. Previously, military officials had to deliver paper invitations to homes, which some military-capable men avoided by staying at different addresses than where they were officially registered. But the new rules expanded the range of places where men could be stopped and questioned about their military service status.
Martial law in force in Ukraine since February 2022 prohibits most men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country. According to the rules of mobilization, every man of that age can theoretically be called to fight. There are exceptions, including students, parents of three or more children under the age of 18, guardians of disabled persons and those deemed medically incapacitated.
The Ukrainian army has long relied on volunteers. But now many Ukrainian men, even those who volunteer or do other useful work as civilians, can no longer avoid mobilization. Others hope that voluntary military service will give them better training and prestige than if they were drafted.
Since the beginning of February, more than 5,000 people have applied to participate in the controversial Azov battalion, which has been integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard. According to its own rules, Azov only accepts self-applies, not recruiting, and reserves the right to reject people it doesn’t believe would be a good fit. As he says, this allows Azov to select the most motivated soldiers.
Other civilians, who do not yet want to enlist in the army, have begun to prepare in case they are called up – they attend private training sessions, so that when the time comes, they don’t have to start from scratch.
(WORLD)