State Duma committee claims springtime electronic conscription summonses will be for ‘testing only’

The State Duma’s Security Committee chair Andrey Kartapolov says this spring’s conscription drive will involve a test distribution of electronic summonses. The deputy claims that these digital notices will not be legally binding for the recipients.

Kartapolov is himself a co-author of the new conscription bill just passed by the State Duma, which permits electronic delivery of military draft notices.

“They may go out as part of the testing, but they will definitely be backed up by the traditional notification methods,” the legislator told RIA Novosti about the electronic notices.

Earlier, Kartapolov had claimed that the new conscription law would not go into effect at all during this spring’s routine conscription round.

Under the new conscription legislation, passed by the State Duma on April 11, an electronic summons will be considered delivered as of the day it appears in a user’s inbox on the official state bureaucracy website Gosuslugi (“State Services”). As of that moment, its recipient will not be able to leave the country, and will face additional restrictions if he doesn’t report to the local draft office.