Russian conscripts called up for military service depart from St. Petersburg, May 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANATOLY MALTSEV
Military enlistment 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 last week that they were receiving text messages on their phones informing them of the punishments for dodging the draft, which also included being prohibited 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 say that the warnings are simply an intimidation tactic to scare 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.
The website for the unified 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 registered Russian citizens.
In September, Vladimir Putin signed a decree calling up 133,000 young men for mandatory military service as part of the autumn conscription campaign.