During a plenary session, the State Duma (Lower House) of Russia passed in its first reading a bill to gradually increase the age of military service to 21 years old.
On June 14, during a plenary session, the State Duma (Lower House) of Russia passed in its first discussion a bill to gradually increase the age of military service to 21 years old.
Previously, in March 2023, a group of deputies led by Mr. Andrey Kartapolov, Chairman of the Defense Committee, submitted the above initiative to the State Duma for consideration.
According to the initiative, the age of military service in 2024 will be from 19 to 30 years old, in 2025 it will be from 20 to 30 years old and in 2026 it will be from 21 to 30 years old.
In addition, those who wish can still perform military service from the age of 18.
In May 2022, the Russian Parliament passed a law allowing the removal of the maximum age limit for military service under contract.
Under current law, Russians aged 18-40 and foreigners aged 18-30 can apply to join the Russian army .
In September 2022, the State Duma unanimously approved amendments to the liability for certain crimes of resisting military service .
The new amendments aim to tighten penalties for a range of crimes such as desertion, destruction of military property and failure to cooperate in combat or general mobilization.
However, a soldier may be exempted from criminal liability if he commits a first-time offense, or voluntarily returns to his unit and does not commit another crime while being held as a prisoner of war.
For robbery, soldiers can be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison depending on the severity of the crime.
For the crime of desertion or evasion of general mobilization, the penalty can be imprisonment from 5-10 years depending on the time of escape.
In addition, the new amendments aim to increase prison terms for other crimes related to resisting military service, increase criminal liability for failing to fulfill state defense orders and violating the terms of state contracts.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on military service in the spring of 2023. The decree was published in the official gazette on March 30.
The decree stipulates that from April 1 to July 15, Russian citizens aged 18-27 who are not in the reserve force and are subject to military service will be called up for military service, with a number of 147,000 people.
The decree also requires the demobilization of soldiers, sailors, sergeants and officers whose military service has expired./.
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