The State Duma approved conscription for military service all year round

Human rights activists link this to the ongoing war against Ukraine

The State Duma in the second reading approved a bill providing for conscription for military service throughout the entire calendar year - from January 1 to December 31. Amendments have been made to the laws “On conscription and military service” and “On alternative civil service”.

According to the document, during the year military registration and enlistment offices will be able to conduct medical examinations, psychological selection and meetings of draft commissions. Sending to duty stations will take place as before - from April 1 to July 15 and from October 1 to December 31.

The authors of the initiative, deputies Andrei Kartapolov and Andrei Krasov, claim that the new order “will make it possible to evenly distribute the load on conscription centers and improve the quality of conscription.”

“Verstka” previously wrote that the autumn conscription will be the largest in the last 9 years. It is expected that 135 thousand people will go to the army in the fall, compared to 152 thousand in 2016.

The third reading of the bill is scheduled for October 28.

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Electronic subpoenas and new rules for reviewing decisions

Amendments were made to the document for the second reading. In particular, the validity period of the electronic summons is limited to 30 days, and applications for review of the decision to send to the army must now be considered within five working days.

The Telegram channel “Question of Law” notes that the 30-day restriction “will prevent excessive restrictions on freedom of movement” and “will ensure the efficiency of conscription.”

The draft commission will be able to make decisions on deferment or release without the personal presence of the conscript, and extracts from the military registration register can be received electronically.

Human rights activists link the initiative to the war in Ukraine

Earlier, the founder of the project to help conscripts “Go through the forest,” Grigory Sverdlin, in a conversation with Radio Liberty, noted that the new initiative is directly related to the war against Ukraine.

“We are recording more and more cases where conscripts are forced to sign a contract. <…> We saw this en masse in August last year, when Ukraine was advancing in the Kursk region. Then there weren’t enough people, and conscripts plugged all the holes. But in the last year, we have recorded more and more cases where conscripts are forced to sign a contract,” Sverdlin noted.

Previously, “Layout” talked about how the spring conscription took place. Human rights activists, among other things, recorded raids on people of military age in the subway, fitness centers and even at work. By the end of June 2025, the conscription plan was completed by 95%.

Photo: Russian conscripts before being sent to garrisons from a recruiting station in St. Petersburg, Russia, October 15, 2025. REUTERS/Anton Vaganov

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