2023-07-25 16:21:28
Conscripts mobilized in Crimea (Archyde.com)
The State Duma or Lower House of the Russian Parliament adopted a legal amendment on Tuesday that establishes the age of military service between 18 and 30 years, although previously, in a first reading, it had raised the minimum age from 18 to 21 years.
The amendment raises from 27 to 30 the maximum age at which Russian citizens can be called up for compulsory military service, which is a constitutional duty.
“The main amendment is that the maximum age is increased to 30 years. It has been decided to leave the minimum age at 18, because there are many boys who want to do military service at 18,” said the chairman of the Duma Committee for Defense and Security, Andrei Kartapolov.
However, the text approved at first reading already contemplated the possibility of voluntary military service from the age of 18.
The increase in the maximum age for compulsory military service was explained with the argument that it compensates for the reduction in the number of citizens who can be called up.
Mobilization in Sevastopol, Crimea (Archyde.com)
Kartapolov indicated that the duration of compulsory military service remains unchanged: one year.
“You don’t have to serve two years, there is no need. Our young people today are capable of acquiring a military specialty in six months,” said the legislator, who is a retired general.
The deputies also approved a modification that allows the heads of the federated entities to create assistance companies for the armed forces and security in periods of mobilization, martial law and state of war, but for this they will have to have the authorization of the head of State.
The amendments, which still need to be approved by the Senate and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, will enter into force on January 1, 2024.
The initiative to increase the age of military service was proposed at the end of 2022 by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and came following hundreds of thousands of men of military age left Russia following the mobilization decreed in September 2022 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In addition to raising the age of military service, Shoigu also proposed in January to increase the number of members of the Armed Forces to 1.5 million by 2026 (this year it rose to 1.15 million), as well as increase the number of professional soldiers to 695,000.
In turn, two new military districts will be created, those in Moscow and Leningrad, as well as an army corps in the Karelian republic, bordering Finland, and groupings in Russia’s “new entities,” the Ukrainian regions of Jerson, Zaporiyia, Donetsk and Lugansk.
Russian conscripts in Simferopol, Crimea (REUTERS/Alexey Pavlishak/File)
On Monday, Vladimir Putin signed into law a law raising the maximum age for a number of categories of reservists to 55, a move that will be phased in from 2024 to 2028.
The modification will apply to reservists, private soldiers, sailors, sergeants, non-commissioned officers, second lieutenants and midshipmen.
As of January 1, 2024, a transition stage is planned until January 1, 2028, during which the reserve withdrawal ages will gradually increase. The age of withdrawal from the reserve for officers fluctuates, depending on the rank, between 50 and 70 years.
With the war in Ukraine in the background, Russia has taken measures to increase the Army without the need to decree new mobilizations, deeply unpopular, promoting more attractive contracts to serve in the Armed Forces and recruiting volunteers.
(With information from EFE)
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