A bill on the change of age limits for conscription for military service was submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation. This was reported on the website of the lower house of the Russian parliament.
It is planned to increase the enlistment age of conscripts from 18-27 to 21-30. The transition is planned in stages – until 2026. So in 2024, citizens of the Russian Federation aged 19 to 30 years from January 1 to December 31 will be called. From 2025, the draft will begin with 20-year-olds. In 2026, Russians 21 and older will already be waiting for military registration and enlistment offices.
The bill also allows 18-year-olds to do their military service “anytime” after 2024. In addition, citizens between the ages of 27-30 who do not serve in the military “without legal justification” will also be able to “do military service whenever they want”.
If the law is passed, the postponements from service will be valid “until they expire or the reasons disappear”.
As stated in the explanatory note of the bill, raising the age for conscription would relieve military commissars from having to impose a deferment on schoolchildren and students during their education. In addition, the financial obligations of the budget for the organization and conduct of medical examinations should be “reduced” to more than 639 million rubles per year.
The bill also applies to immigrants from near and far countries. If visitors become citizens of the Russian Federation under the age of 30, they will be required to register for military service in accordance with Article 4 of the Federal Law No. 9 “On military service and military service”.
The change is due to take effect on January 1, 2024.
The Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee Andrey Kartapolov announced that in 2023 conscription will be carried out according to the existing rules.
The bill came into existence after the head of the Ministry of Defense, Sergei Shoigu, called for raising the military age in the country by the end of 2022. On January 12, Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, said that Vladimir Putin “conceptually supports” the idea, but “details and design of the idea are from the Ministry of Defense”.
Shoigu also recommended that “enlistees be allowed to move on to a contract from the first day of service”.
State Duma Defense Committee member Viktor Sobolev stated that there is no point in raising the military age. According to him, the bottom bar at 21 is “neither here nor there” because a potential soldier of this age has not yet graduated from a university or institute.
At the same time, Klavdiya Bakumenko, head of the legal support department for PryzivaNet clients, said in a conversation with the News.ru portal that raising the military age will allow graduates of vocational schools and colleges to enroll in higher education up to their age. 21 and you get a snooze. People with intermediate specialization training are now required to serve before entering a university.
At the same time, Bakumenko added, the new norms could minimize the number of conscripts eligible for a 27-year deferral for graduate and postgraduate study. Therefore, the “total number of men” that can be conscripted will increase.