The Russian Ministry of Defense has presented a draft amendment to the Regulation on Military Registration. The proposal indicates that individuals who are arrested or kept in detention could be required to perform military service within the correctional system. The draft is accessible on the federal portal for normative legal regulations, allowing the public to examine the specifics of the measure and understand how it would operate in practice.
Key revisions under consideration involve changes to paragraph 15, replacing the current exemption for Russians serving prison terms from military registration. The draft introduces a concept called the “special military registration” for detainees, expanding the group of people subject to enlistment beyond ordinary citizens and reshaping the boundaries of compulsory service within the correctional context.
Under the proposed framework, private military registration would be handled by the military registration and enlistment offices and would extend into correctional institutions, facilities within the prison system, and the locations that house those facilities. The mechanism is designed to align with existing Russian law and the regulations governing military service and inmate management, ensuring coherence with the broader legal architecture that coordinates citizenship, security, and enforcement in the country.
In August, Valery Fadeev, who leads the Council for the Promotion of Civil Society and Human Rights (HRC) under the President of Russia, floated a policy linking foreign nationals with the issuance of Russian passports in parallel with their military enlistment. The proposal signals a potential convergence between citizenship procedures and the enlistment process, aiming to streamline eligibility recognition for certain non-citizens who meet defined criteria.
Reports from Saint Petersburg law enforcement indicate that more than 100 Russian citizens living abroad have been drawn into the military registration and enlistment system, highlighting ongoing enforcement actions and cross-border cooperation. These developments illustrate the evolving relationship between migration, citizenship status, and compulsory military service within Russia’s regulatory environment, and how administrative mechanisms are used to extend coverage across borders and communities. [Source attribution: Ministry of Defense policy brief; HRC statement; regional law enforcement disclosures]