Russia considers extending military service for new citizens by a year

The speaker of Russia’s State Duma has proposed the introduction of legislation that would extend the duration of military service required of newly naturalised Russian citizens from one to two years, according to a statement issued by Russia’s lower house of parliament on Monday.

Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin indicated that an amendment to the existing law on military service would be considered by the Duma before the end of its current session on 5 August, and charged four senior deputies from the ruling party United Russia with introducing the legislation.

The deputies are also planning to tighten the rules on registering newly naturalised Russian citizens for military service, making it a precondition for being granted a passport.

Meanwhile, deputies introduced an amendment on Monday that, if adopted, would oblige anybody in Russia with over 10,000 subscribers on social media to inform Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor. Failure to do so would prohibit them from accepting donations or posting ads, Duma Deputy Alexander Khinshtein said on Telegram.

The amendment would apply to all types of social media profile on any platform, including Telegram and YouTube, Khinshtein said, adding that the amendment had been introduced to the second reading of a bill designed to tighten the conditions around the sale of SIM cards, which was all part of what he called “the fight against the spread of false information”.