The human rights project «Conscription School» released a report on the autumn conscription and new trends in fulfilling the plan — forced conscription. It collects and analyzes testimonies from 77 conscripts from Moscow who managed to inform human rights activists about violence, most often from police officers who also participate in raids.
By early December, four human rights organizations received 217 reports of forced conscription. Human rights activists claim that the actual number of forcibly conscripted could reach several hundred people.
In 25 cases, the applicants, either the conscripts themselves or their relatives, confirmed that the conscript ended up in the army. In 26 cases, after detention and verification, which lasted up to several days, the detained and taken to the assembly point young men were released. In 8 cases, police officers attempted to detain individuals but were unsuccessful — they did not open the doors of their apartments. In 18 cases, the detainees were taken to the assembly point, but their further fate is unknown, most likely their phones were taken before being sent to the troops.
In the fall of 2024, the conscription plan in Moscow increased by 3,000 people and exceeded 8,000, while previously the conscription plans in the capital could not be fulfilled. Therefore, Moscow decided to test a new system. In November, the city authorities moved to more active measures and began to apply forced conscription. Conscripts who did not appear by summons either at the unified conscription point (UCP) or at the assembly point for dispatch to the troops were declared wanted, detained at home or in the metro, and taken to the UCP or assembly point. Detentions were usually carried out by police officers. Citizens could not appeal to the law, as police officers did not accept any objections or explanations, did not question the legality of their actions, and limited themselves to the function of delivering the detainees.
If no decision had yet been made regarding the conscription of the detainee, they were taken to the UCP. There, in an emergency order, medical examinations were conducted without following the legally established procedure (for example, the results of mandatory diagnostic studies such as ECG, lung fluorography, blood tests for HIV and hepatitis B and C were absent, no additional examination was conducted) and a decision was made on conscription for military service, human rights activists reported. After this, conscripts were effectively escorted to the assembly point, where they were prepared for dispatch to the place of military service.
As «Conscription School» writes, lawyers and attorneys are not allowed in either the UCP or the assembly point. Under these conditions, conscripts were deprived of the right to defense, as they could not appeal the decision made against them.
Some applicants were not Moscow conscripts at all, as they arrived in the capital from other regions. For example, one conscript was registered for military service in Voronezh, where he was awaiting exemption from conscription due to health reasons. Another had not registered for military service at all and permanently resided in St. Petersburg, finding himself in Moscow in transit. A third was registered in Moscow but then transferred to another region, where he was listed at the time of detention. However, in all these cases, the conscription commission found no grounds for exemption and sent the young men to the army.
If conscripts do not appear after receiving a summons, they are declared «wanted», and their data is entered into the Moscow Government's facial recognition system. Police and military commissariat officers also visit the addresses of «evaders», but since conscripts often do not open doors, the authorities use employees of the municipal enterprise «Zhilishchnik», who deceive citizens into opening the door, for example, by cutting off the power to the apartment.
Conscription School recorded several atypical cases related to the detention of not yet conscripted young people in public places and government institutions. For example, a young man was detained at the MFC while receiving a passport.
On April 1, the spring conscription began in Russia, this year 160,000 people are subject to conscription, a record number since 2011. Since 2012, the norm for the conscription campaign has not exceeded 155,500 people, in the autumn conscription of 2024, Putin ordered 133,000 people to be conscripted. As the plans have increased further, human rights activists expect the practice of forced conscription to spread to other regions of the country.
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