Russia tightens bill to strengthen deadly war fronts

Russia is introducing laws to close loopholes exploited by those seeking to evade conscription.

Until now, it was relatively easy to avoid conscription in Russia. Anyone who wanted to avoid military service simply had to avoid receiving a written call-up notice.

One option was to move without telling the authorities your current address so that delivery was not possible. The new law closes this loophole, as the draft notice is considered delivered one week after it is published on a government website.

The Russian government’s failure to share conscription data with border crossing points was also an issue during the “partial” military mobilization in 2022. This emergency mobilization saw 300,000 soldiers drafted and sent to Ukraine to compensate for Russia’s losses on the battlefield.

But Moscow has been unable to prevent young people, fearful of being drafted, from leaving the country in large numbers. Some sources reported that 700,000 people left the country in September 2022 alone. But as the war in Ukraine continues, Moscow wants to prevent this exodus from happening again.

What changes?

Starting November 1, 2024, draft notices will also be collected with other information the state has on its citizens, such as tax records, criminal records or property ownership, allowing officials to build a complete profile of the person and their activities and track their movements more closely.

The most notable change, however, is the way in which the draft notices are delivered. They will no longer rely on the delivery of a paper form to a physical address. From November, these will be submitted online and will be deemed delivered even if the recipients do not have internet access or have not seen the notice.

This change in the law is likely to affect the second conscription campaign of the year, known in Russia as the Autumn Conscription (Osennij Prize). With the war in Ukraine showing no end in sight, the large number of people evading conscription poses a major challenge for Moscow. Some estimates put Russia’s losses at nearly 900 soldiers a day, and the total number of lives lost is fast approaching half a million, according to British government estimates.

Against this backdrop, Moscow is determined to increase the number of conscripts and stem the flow of those crossing borders to avoid the draft. Conscription is usually restricted to men between the ages of 18 and 27, except in some special circumstances where women in certain professions (doctors, radio and map specialists) may also be drafted. (Although the maximum age for conscription may eventually be raised to 30.)

Once the changes come into effect, border officials will be able to access all of this online information and quickly check whether people are allowed to leave Russia. People who have received a call-up notice online will be prohibited from crossing the border.

A wave of departures?

These upcoming changes could result in a new fee being imposed at the border this summer before the new law takes effect in November.

The new system could also allow the Russian government to more closely track its citizens using the new database. It would make it harder for those trying to avoid military conscription to stay online, have a bank account or own a car without the government catching on.

Anyone wishing to leave the country or avoid conscription will have to come up with more sophisticated methods of evading conscription than those they may have used in the past.

Russians might consider the Soviet approach to draft evasion, when corruption in local government and medical institutions allowed people to buy fake disability cards and other “official” documents that allowed them to avoid conscription. Corruption is widespread in the Russian military, so new avenues like this could quickly open up.

These changes suggest that Moscow is preparing for a prolonged conflict in Ukraine, despite recent discussions about resuming peace talks. Vladimir Putin has said Russia is ready to end the war if Ukraine agrees to the Kremlin’s terms.

However, preparations for the fall 2024 conscription campaign may indicate that this is not the priority plan as Moscow continues to develop and adjust its military plans.

Anastassiya Mahon is a lecturer in security studies at the Institute of International Politics, Aberystwyth University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.