Russian conscripts called up for military service depart from St. Petersburg, May 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANATOLY MALTSEV
Military recruitment offices in Moscow have begun notifying conscripts that failing to appear when summoned could result in several restrictions including a ban on leaving the country, Russian investigative news outlet IStories reported on Tuesday.
Conscripts reported they were receiving text messages last week informing them of the penalties for draft dodging, which include being barred from managing property, registering as an entrepreneur and borrowing money, according to Artyom Klyga, a lawyer for the Russian non-profit Movement of Conscientious Objectors, who confirmed the reports to IStories.
However, human rights groups have described the warnings as intimidation tactics aimed at scaring conscripts into registering themselves for the military.
“These notifications are nothing more than intimidation. Their goal is to make you run in fear to the military enlistment office and surrender. Neither we nor our colleagues have received any reports that restrictive measures are being applied to anyone,” the human rights organisation School of Conscription said on Tuesday.
However, the organisation urged people “not to relax”, adding that the restrictions will come into effect on 1 January when the digital military summons register is likely to be launched.
According to the School of Conscription, police officers are already conducting mass raids on conscripts, detaining Muscovites of draft age at home, on the street, or in the metro, after which they are taken in handcuffs to the police station or to a local assembly point for conscripts.
A digital register of Russians liable for military service was supposed to be launched nationwide in November, but the launch of the database was postponed until 1 January after a test run in three Russian regions in September, when Novaya Gazeta Europe revealed serious vulnerabilities allowing anyone to access the personal information of those registered in the system.
In September, Vladimir Putin signed a decree calling up 133,000 young men for mandatory military service as part of the autumn conscription campaign.
