Russian legislators approve bill scrapping upper age limit for military contract service

The Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) has approved amendments to the law “On military duty and military service,” which scrap the upper age limit for contract service. The amendments were approved in three readings at once and published on the parliament’s website.

According to the current legislation, Russian citizens aged 18 to 40 and foreign citizens aged 18 to 30 can sign up for military contract service. Now, any citizen of working age will be able to enlist.

The Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) has already approved this initiative.

“The approval of this bill will allow us to enlist specialists in popular fields,” Andrei Krasov, one of the authors of the bill along with Andrei Kartapolov, the head of the State Duma’s Defence Committee, said.

The explanatory note to the bill says: “Highly professional specialists are required to deploy high-precision weapons, operate weapons and military equipment.” Such specialists usually reach the age of 40-45, the note suggests. The document also points out that scrapping the upper age limit would attract doctors, engineers, technicians and communications specialists to the army.