From the BBC:
“Ukraine war: Russian parliament
approves online call-up”
The Russian parliament has approved
legislation to start serving call-up papers online. The Kremlin has denied the
move is aimed at speeding up further mobilisation of Russian men or putting a
stop to widespread draft-dodging. Thousands of Russians have avoided the draft
to escape the war in Ukraine. Critics say the law is further evidence of
authorities creating an "electronic Gulag", referring to the
Soviet-era network of prison camps.
Until now, conscription papers in
Russia have had to be served in person or via an employer. In reality, it has
meant many avoiding the draft by moving away from where they were registered to
live, or simply not opening the door when military officials came calling. Under
the new legislation, call-up papers will be deemed to be served as soon as they
appear on a special "State Services" government portal called
"Gosuslugi". "The summons is considered received from the moment
it is placed in the personal account of a person liable for military
service," Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the Russian parliament's defence
committee, said on TV. From that moment,
a conscript will be obliged to turn up at his local enlistment office.
Citizens who fail to show up will be
banned from travelling abroad and could face other restrictions. They will not
be able to buy or sell property, their driving licences will be invalidated and
they will be unable to register small businesses. Of the 395 Russian MPs who
voted on the legislation, 394 supported it and one abstained. Russia's lower
house or State Duma has 450 MPs. The new legislation will come into effect when
it is signed by President Vladimir Putin, which is likely to happen soon.
Last September, the Kremlin began a
chaotic emergency mobilisation campaign to support Russia's "special
military operation" in Ukraine, amid a series of humiliating defeats after
its full-scale invasion. More than 300,000 former soldiers and ex-conscripts
are believed to have been called up, in a drive that often saw young men being
picked up on the street or in shopping malls. Thousands of men aged 18 to 27
fled abroad to avoid the draft and protests broke out in numerous Russian
cities, although they were swiftly suppressed.
According to leaked US documents,
Russia is estimated to have suffered between 189,500 and 223,000 casualties.
Those numbers include 35,500-43,000 men killed in action and another
154,000-180,000 wounded. BBC News Russian has compiled a list of 17,000 Russian
servicemen who are confirmed dead, through gathering information from open
sources, with names, ranks and in many cases, the military units they served
in. The last time Russian authorities revealed casualties figures was in
September last year, when they confirmed the deaths of 5,937 servicemen. "A
once convenient online government portal turned out to have a flip side,"
tweeted Ilia Krasilshchik, who founded the Helpdesk website, which offers
advice and assistance to Russian men trying to avoid being sent to fight in
Ukraine. "In an instant, you can be marked out and your exit from the
country can be shut off. That's it. Who needs new waves of mobilisation? Take
people out one by one in an attractive interface of a digital state."
The State Services government web
portal is widely used by Russians to apply for a new passport or a marriage
licence, pay bills and fines or make an appointment with a GP. But Mr
Krasilshchik warned that the state had turned it into a site to provide the
Russian state with cannon fodder for Ukrainian guns. President Putin's press
secretary, Dmitry Peskov, denied the new legislation was linked to an attempt
to widen mobilisation: "This is simply to improve military records. The
system has to match modern requirements."
^ This is just a way for Putin and
his minions to get ready for more Mobilization and to stop the hundreds of
thousands of Russian Men who were able to avoid the September 2022 Mobilization
Order from continuing to avoid being cannon fodder in Ukraine. ^
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