Electronic summonses to the army will begin to be sent already in this draft

Electronic summonses for army service will begin to be sent already in the current, spring conscription, which began in Russia on April 1. This was announced by the military commissar of Moscow Maksym Loktev. He did not specify whether the innovation will be used only in Moscow or in other regions of the country.

Loktev said that conscripts will receive summonses to report to military enlistment offices for military service through the “Gosuslugy” portal. They will also be notified by SMS and by phone.

At the same time, as reported by RBC, the Ministry of Statistics stated that the government should establish the methods of issuing subpoenas in a separate act, which has not yet been adopted.

Earlier, State Duma deputy Andrey Kartapolov claimed that the law on electronic summons will not apply to the 2023 spring convocation.

• The draft law on digitalization of conscription into the army was passed by the State Duma and approved by the Federation Council last week, and was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 14. The new law presupposes the creation of a single register of conscripts and new ways of notifying conscripts. Now the summons can come by registered letter, in electronic form through the “Gosuslugy” portal and through the MFC. Previously, they were handed out only in person or through the employer.
• Also, according to the new law, the summons will be considered delivered from the moment of placing its electronic copy in the “personal account” on “Government Services”. After that, the conscript will be prohibited from leaving the country until he arrives at the military enlistment office.
• In case of failure to appear on the summons within 20 calendar days, additional restrictions may apply: ban on registration as an individual entrepreneur, on real estate registration, on driving a car, on concluding a credit agreement.

• The law on electronic subpoenas has sparked heated discussion. According to his opponents, it will now be extremely difficult for Russians who do not want to serve in the army – and, in particular, to participate in hostilities in Ukraine – to refuse the draft, and it will also be impossible to go abroad. Previously, many anti-war Russians refused to receive paper summonses, and failure to appear on a summons at the military enlistment office was punishable only by a fine of 500 to 3,000 rubles.
• The spring call for conscription in the Russian army will last until July 15. It is officially planned to draft 147 thousand people — 12.5 thousand more than in the spring draft of 2022.