Russia belatedly launches online call-up system amid huge recruitment drive

Russia appears to have fully launched its online military call-up system, Get Lost, an organisation that helps Russian men to avoid conscription, said on Friday.

“It looks like the site has been fully launched: you can access your personal account and check whether you have been called up or not,” Get Lost said. The website had previously only been working in test mode, having faced a string of technical issues.

Novaya Europe staff, however, were unable to log into their personal accounts on the website, with an error message appearing on the screen, demonstrating that the site is still suffering teething troubles.

The online call-up system was due to launch on 1 November, though the date was then put back. By law, anyone who fails to appear at a military enlistment office within seven days of being called up will not be allowed to leave the country, will have their driving licence revoked and will be forbidden from taking out loans.

Nonprofit human rights project Shkola Prizyvnika wrote that a Moscow man was fined 30,000 rubles (€320) in late November for failing to appear at an enlistment office having been issued call-up papers. The military enlistment office provided a screenshot from the online registry as evidence against him.

In March, Vladimir Putin decreed the largest intake of conscripts by the Russian military in 14 years, ordering the Ministry of Defence to draft 160,000 new recruits this year alone. The spring conscription campaign, which began on 1 April and will last until 15 July, has been accompanied by warnings from human rights activists about the growing frequency with which illegal roundups are being used as a means to meet these ambitious targets.