You can now get a summons anywhere in the world without opening the door to the military commissar: the State Duma passed a law thanks to which almost no one can avoid being drafted. According to the bill, the summons can now be served in two ways – in the form of a physical document and in the form of an electronic notification. In this case, the summons will be considered served one week after being placed in the register, even if the person has not received or seen it.
Also, summonses can now be sent by registered mail. They will be considered delivered to the addressee after the organization involved in the delivery of correspondence reports on its delivery.
An electronic summons is considered delivered immediately after it arrives in the “personal account on the corresponding resource”, determined by the decision of the government. However, if a person could not receive either a physical summons or an electronic one (say, he does not have an account on the State Services or he does not use the Internet or other means of communication at all), it will still be considered delivered seven days after its appearance in electronic register.
Cancellation rights
If within 20 days after the date specified in the summons, the conscript does not appear at the military registration and enlistment office, he will be prohibited from:
- registration of individual entrepreneurs and self-employment;
- registration of real estate;
- registration of vehicles;
- vehicle management;
- receiving loans.
The "package" of bans will be generated automatically by the system. The military commissar will only need to certify it with his electronic signature. In addition, the law states that:
- from the moment the summons is served and until the visit of a person to the military registration and enlistment office, a citizen is imposed a restriction on traveling abroad;
- the initial registration of citizens and their enrollment in the reserve can now take place without their personal appearance at the military registration and enlistment office: for this, information about them already available on state information resources will be used;
- to clarify information about military registration, a citizen also does not now have to go to the military registration and enlistment office. This can be done electronically “using the Portal of State and Municipal Services”.
The agenda will be able to be handed over against signature right at the military commissariat.
Cancellation of benefits
At the same time, regional authorities have the right to impose their own restrictions on citizens receiving payments, benefits, support measures and, as noted in the bill, “other preferences” established by regulatory legal acts of the subjects of the Russian Federation. If this is interpreted broadly, local authorities are given the right to introduce any restrictive measures on the territory of their subject of the Russian Federation that will be taken by regional legislative bodies.
Local authorities are given the right to introduce any restrictive measures on the territory of their subject of the Russian Federation
Restrictions are promised to be lifted after the appearance in the military registration and enlistment office
Restrictions can be lifted only by arriving at the military registration and enlistment office "to clarify the data." After that, according to the document, a decision is made to remove or refuse to remove restrictions. The decision is formed in the military registration register in automatic mode and is certified by the electronic signature of the military commissar within a day from the moment the citizen appears on the agenda "or confirmation of good reasons for non-appearance."
As Ilya Shumanov, director of Transparency International Russia, explained to The Insider, the law affects the rights of a group of citizens. In addition, thanks to him, a wide field of corruption is formed, since the procedure for lifting restrictions is not prescribed – only a possibility. According to the law, a person's rights will be returned when he signs the agenda and goes to the front or to the military registration and enlistment office "to clarify the data."
“The listed groups of citizens, bound by the obligations of military registration and not responding to the agendas of the military enlistment offices, are actually affected in their rights, including a ban on registering rights to objects of movable and immovable property, which is a hidden form of a ban on transactions with their own property. In addition, the ban applies to tax registration, registration as a self-employed person or opening the status of an individual entrepreneur.
Added to this are restrictions on driving and using credits. [The law also] forms a wide field of corruption associated with the removal and evasion of these restrictions by those liable for military service.”
After the Russian attack on Ukraine in March 2022, the State Duma considered 51 bills. Of the 19 approved legislative acts, the deputies adopted 13 at once in three readings in one day. Among them was the law on "responsibility for discrediting the actions of the Russian army." Amendments to the draft law regarding military duty were adopted by the State Duma on April 11, 2023 immediately in the second and third readings.