Russian parliament adopts draft law on year-round conscription

Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, has adopted a draft law allowing for some procedures relating to conscription to military service to be conducted on a year-round basis, according to details published on the website on Tuesday.

The bill must now be approved by the Federation Council and signed by Vladimir Putin, and will come into force on 1 January. 

A year-round conscription process will replace the current system in which new recruits were taken on in two waves. Though new conscripts will still begin their service on the same dates, between 1 April and 15 July or between 1 October to 31 December, the new system will allow for medical examinations, psychological screening and conscription commission meetings to take place throughout the year.

The initiative was authored by the head of the State Duma’s Defence Committee Andrey Kartapolov and his deputy Andrey Krasov, who said the new system would “evenly distribute the burden on conscription offices and improve the conscription process”.

Russia launched its online military call-up system earlier this year. By law, anyone who receives a digital draft notice and fails to appear at a military enlistment office within seven days of being called up will not be allowed to leave the country, will have their driving licence revoked and will be forbidden from taking out loans.

An amendment made during the second reading of the bill has limited the validity of electronic call-up papers to 30 days. Under current procedures, an electronic call-up is valid indefinitely, meaning the military enlistment office can set an appointment for a new conscript to report to the office months ahead, during which time he would not be able to leave the country.