The government commission approved the proposal of the Russian Ministry of Defense to lower the threshold for initiating a criminal case for unauthorized absence. Currently, a case can be initiated after 10 days of absence; if the bill is adopted, this period will be reduced to two days, writes «Vedomosti».
The new rules will apply to both conscripts and contract soldiers. For them to come into force, the amendments must be submitted to the State Duma, approved by deputies of both houses of parliament, and signed by the president.
According to the Ukrainian OSINT community Frontelligence Insight, in 2024, around 50,500 people could have been prosecuted for desertion in Russia. «Important Stories»*, having studied leaked databases and documents of the Ministry of Defense, confirmed these figures. Over 3.5 years of full-scale war in Ukraine, Russian garrison military courts have issued at least 18,341 sentences in cases of desertion and leaving the place of service, involving 18,470 people, calculated the analytical center of Kirill Parubets.
* Recognized in Russia as a «foreign agent» and «undesirable» organization.