The spring conscription for the Russian army is underway. The first reports are coming in that potential recruits are being caught in the Moscow metro. The Movement of Conscientious Objectors to Military Service in Russia has already reported three such confirmed cases. In two of them, human rights activists managed to free the young men.

Only three people – is there any reason to worry? Yet everything is just getting started, both in the capital and in the provinces. The experience of the autumn 2024 conscription shows that the state saves the real all-out “manhunts” for the very end, when there is pressure to meet the planned figures for conscripts. Last November-December, young people were taken at home, at work, at friends’ and in public transport. Sometimes, military commissariat officials pretended to be utility workers or food couriers. Most importantly, their targets are systematically intimidated, handcuffed and beaten.

What has changed in terms of conscription rules during the so-called “special military operation?” Overall, the government has stiffened them. The lower age limit (18 years) has remained the same, but the upper one has been raised from 27 to 30. When conscripts fail to appear after receiving a summons, they cannot lead a normal life: they are prohibited from leaving the country, driving a car, taking out loans and registering as an individual entrepreneur or self-employed. Failure to appear also threatens manyfold increased fines.

Finally, a summons is now valid not for just the period of the spring or autumn conscription, but for 365 days. The Duma passed the corresponding amendment after the start of the current conscription drive. Technically, the act does not have retroactive force (and Putin has not even signed it into law yet), but human rights activists are sure that military commissariats are willing to use this impending change to pad their recruit numbers.

The same trends are seen in medical exemptions/deferments. In February, the Ministry of Defense proposed shortening the list of diseases that result in exemptions/ deferments. According to the proposal, the Russian army will now take young men with syphilis, hypertension and schizophrenia (see Russia.Post about it here). Legally, these provisions have not been officially approved either, but human rights activists argue that this will not stop military commissariats. The same goes for the nominally still-valid ban on sending conscripts to military units “the same day” – i.e., right after being apprehended and without proper paperwork and processing at military commissariats.

Can conscripts be sent to Ukraine? The state has been spinning the same story for four years now: there were no conscripts fighting in the “special operation,” there are none and there will not be any. It claims that the target for the current conscription – the highest since 2011 – is meant to respond to NATO expansion and create a new branch of the armed forces, i.e., unmanned aviation.

The facts tell a different story: back in summer 2024, the BBC identified by name 159 conscripts who had died in battles with the Ukrainian army. Moreover, the number “159” may be just the tip of the iceberg. One can only guess how many conscripts, having been beaten and intimidated, were forced to sign contracts over three years of war, and how many had their signatures forged on documents without their knowledge.