Reservists in Russia are receiving draft office summonses “to clarify their records.” A rights advocate explains what to do

Reservists in Russia are receiving draft office summonses “to clarify their records.” A rights advocate explains what to do

This spring, an especially large number of reservists in Russia have been receiving summonses to the military enlistment office, most often being called in for “data clarification.” When they appear, officials try to paste in a mobilization order, persuade them to join the reserve, or sign a contract, rights advocates say. Some are even calling what is happening a “quiet mobilization.”

TV Rain asked Sergei Krivenko, director of the human rights group “Citizen. Army. Law,” how people should behave if they receive such a summons.

According to him, this really is a major problem right now; they have been receiving a great many requests for help since the autumn of last year.

A registry has been created in Russia of everyone who is on military registration. That is somewhere around 20 to 25 million people. Changes were adopted to the law requiring the heads of all organizations in Russia — healthcare, education, employers — to send data on every person who is on military registration to the enlistment office. That means the enlistment office is now receiving an enormous amount of data from all enterprises, and all of it is being consolidated into a single database.

Of course, this creates a huge number of errors. They are testing this database, making changes and additions, and calling a huge number of people into the enlistment office.

According to him, there is a serious risk that, beyond clarifying records, such summonses may simply be used to lure people into the enlistment office, where there is very aggressive contract recruitment, sometimes with heavy psychological pressure:

People write that they are taken into a room for an hour, and several people begin directly persuading them, pressuring them psychologically, and so on. And for many, this is very hard to endure, and people need to prepare for it. There is recruitment, a call-up for training camps, and the insertion of a mobilization order.

All of these actions can be refused. Unfortunately, the old policy that existed in 2022 — “you got a summons, don’t go to the enlistment office” — no longer works. Serious changes have been made to the laws, and after 20 days, if a person does not appear at the enlistment office in response to a summons, their rights may be restricted.

Now people need to go to the enlistment office to avoid these restrictions, but be prepared for this contract recruitment.

According to him, contracts are still signed voluntarily, and they can be refused. The same goes for training camps and for the insertion of a mobilization certificate. Very detailed step-by-step instructions on how to do this are available from the “Call to Conscience” project.

Don’t want to go into the army? Open the guide. A partner project of TV Rain and “Call to Conscience.”