Bill on criminal liability for people dodging mobilisation drafted in Russia

Deputies and senators from the United Russia political party have drafted a bill on criminalising mobilisation dodging for people who have received draft notices, Russia’s news agency Interfax reports, citing one of the bill’s authors, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption Ernest Valeev.

The bill stipulates a punishment of either a fine from 200,000 (€3,200) to 500,000 (€8,000) rubles or a person’s income of one-three years, forced labour, or imprisonment of up to five years. According to Valeev, “a draft notice should be received officially” for there to be liability.

“This [bill] is for the future, it doesn’t relate to the current [mobilisation] situation, because it was officially announced that mobilisation was over; this [bill] is not for the purpose of using it on people who have evaded [this mobilisation] in one way or another.

“There’s just a gap in the legislature. The thing is that there’s only liability for dodging the compulsory military service draft currently stipulated in the existing article 328 of the Criminal Code of Russia. After 1941, we have not had a mobilisation for people in the army reserve. And the existing law does not apply to people in the army reserve. But during mobilisation, it’s the people from the reserve who get drafted, and there’s no criminal liability for them [in the article],” Valeev explains.

He thinks that dodgers should bear the same responsibility during compulsory military service draft and mobilisation.

On 28 October, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu briefed Putin on the end of “partial” mobilisation in Russia. According to Shoigu, “the target quota of 300,000 people has been reached; no other mobilisation targets are planned”.

On 31 October, Russia’s General Staff of the Armed Forces sent out instructions to the commanders of military districts and the commander of the North Fleet to report the completion of “partial mobilisation” activities before 1 November. On the same day, Vladimir Putin said that mobilisation was over.

However, an official presidential decree about the end of mobilisation has not yet been signed.