The upper house of the Russian Parliament voted on Wednesday April 12 a law facilitating the mobilization of Russians in the army, a text validated in two days by the legislator and which is now awaiting the signature of Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin denies that this is the beginning of a new mobilization of reservists for the Ukrainian front.
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According to the new law, a reservist can now be mobilized electronically, via a portal of the Russian public services, or even if the order is given to a third party.
Until then, invitations had to be delivered by hand.
Many Russians who could be mobilized have so far escaped summons by no longer going to their official address.
This should soon no longer be possible.
A law to “fix” the “brothel”
The text was adopted at a run, the Duma (lower house), having adopted it in a few hours on Tuesday 11 April.
Asked about the subject on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov defended the authorities' haste, saying that "
these documents
" were "
extremely important
".
According to him, this new law must above all "
fix
" the "
brothel
" observed in the military registration offices during the mobilization ordered in September 2022. This new law has caused a great stir among part of the population. , some seeing it as proof that a new wave of mobilization is preparing, while Russia is struggling with its assault on Ukraine.
Once the text is in force, any mobilized Russian “
will be considered refractory
”, an offense punishable by imprisonment, if he “
refuses to receive his summons or if he cannot be contacted
”.
After denying that it was preparing a mobilization, Russia called up, after a series of military setbacks, 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine.
Tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of Russians have also fled the country for fear of having to go to fight.