More than 4,000 requests were received by the Military Ombudsman project's legal aid hotline within a day after the adoption of the law on electronic summonses. At the request of The Insider, representatives of the hotline spoke about the most frequent requests and noted that the only way to avoid being drafted in the current situation is to be outside the Russian Federation.
Most often, lawyers are asked: “Will deleting an account on “Gosuslug” help to avoid being called to the military registration and enlistment office, and do the legislative amendments apply to those who have gone abroad?” In addition, people were interested in “Will all summonses from the draft board be mandatory now?”, “Will they have time to call for spring conscription after graduation in early July?”, “When does the new law come into force?”, “What is the responsibility for failure to appear on the agenda?” ?”, “I have a reservation, will they call anyway?”.
The lawyers of the hotline also note that references to violations of the provisions of the Constitution in the case of new amendments will not help those who received the summons: “The Constitution says about the obligation to defend the homeland, military service is directly indicated. The Constitutional Court will refer to it.”
Earlier, a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Doctor of Law Ilya Shablinsky told The Insider:
“They usually refer to Part 3 of Art. 55 of the Constitution – the possibility of restricting a number of rights in order to protect the defense capability. But even it does not allow limiting the rights provided for by Part 1 of Art. 34, – to the free use of their abilities and property. These rights are NOT subject to restriction in accordance with Part 3 of Art. 56".
On April 11, the State Duma adopted in three readings at once a bill on electronic "notifications" (summons), new measures of responsibility for "avoiding" conscripts, and the creation of a unified register of those liable for military service.