The Duma, the Russian parliament, chose to vote on Tuesday, July 25, a law allowing to increase the age limit for compulsory military service. The latter will go from 27 to 30 years, in the 18th month of conflict between Russia and Ukraine. “From January 1, 2024, citizens between the ages of 18 and 30 will be called up for military service”, according to this law adopted in second and then third reading by the Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, the most important step of the legislative process in the country.
This measure will make it possible to significantly increase the number of active Russian soldiers without resorting to a new mobilization of potential reservists, while Moscow has already mobilized nearly 300,000 in September 2022 for its offensive in Ukraine. The law also prohibits conscripts from leaving Russian territory once the enlistment office has sent them their conscription order.
Before coming into force, the text must still be approved by the Council of the Federation, the upper house of Parliament, and signed by President Vladimir Putin, generally a formality. Another law voted on Tuesday by deputies reinforces the penalties for defaulters by providing in particular for a fine of up to 30,000 rubles (about 300 euros) for not showing up at the police station “without valid reason”, after having received the order of conscription.
The Russian Parliament had already adopted at a run in April a law facilitating the mobilization of Russians in the army by expanding the means of sending summonses. This law also made life more difficult for defaulters by depriving them of the possibility of working as an entrepreneur or self-employed person, of receiving loans or of disposing of their accommodation and their car.
Many Russians who had to perform their one-year compulsory military service had so far escaped summons by not going to their official address or by paying bribes to recruiters or doctors. The Kremlin has denied for months wanting to launch a new wave of mobilization for the offensive in Ukraine. The previous one caused the flight of tens of thousands of Russians abroad.
