Those who do not report to the Army may be temporarily prevented from opening a business, obtaining a driver’s license, buying real estate or applying for a bank loan.
the president of Russia, Vladimir Putinsigned this Friday, 14, a law that persecutes men of military age who do not want to serve the Army, as conscripts or reservists, in the midst of Russia’s military operations in Ukraine. The law, passed this week by both houses of the Russian Parliament – Duma and Senate – prohibits draftees from leaving the country from the moment they receive notification until they report to the place of enlistment. Russians have two weeks to report after being notified in writing or electronically. Furthermore, if they do not report to the enrollment center within 20 days, they will be temporarily barred from starting a business, obtaining a driver’s license, buying real estate or applying for a bank loan. The document also creates a unique electronic record of men of military age, so that no one can argue that there is no record of them receiving the official communication in their personal account on the public services portal. While many Russians have unsubscribed from this administrative site, the bill’s authors cautioned that account deletion does not exempt anyone from informing military commissioners.
As a result, many Russians this week rushed to put their assets, from real estate to cars, in the names of their wives and other family members. According to the authors, the law is an attempt to correct the many mistakes made during Putin’s mobilization, the first ordered by the Kremlin since the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. However, the real objective, according to many newspapers, is to avoid a repeat of the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Russians that occurred when the president decreed partial mobilization in September 2022. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied this week that passing this law paves the way for a second mobilization , although the doubt remains. Last year, Putin called up 300,000 reservists, but one of the points in the decree is secret, which opens the door to a new mobilization campaign. In addition, the Ministry of Defense announced plans to increase the number of personnel in the Army to 1.5 million, in addition to the fact that from now on men between the ages of 21 and 30 will have to do mandatory military service, in instead of 18 to 27, as in the past.
Earlier this month, the independent Russian portal “Mediazona” and the Russian language service of the “BBC”, together with a team of volunteers, gave the names and surnames of 19,688 Russians killed in Ukraine. However, according to documents released by the US secret service in the press, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) “estimates that the actual number of dead and wounded Russians is closer to 110,000”. The latest official death toll on the Russian side is 5,937 and was provided by the Defense on September 21 last year.
*With information from EFE