By Galina Korol | 2025-08-05

For generations, young Russian men could brace for military service during two predictable windows -- spring and fall. That predictability may soon disappear.

On July 22, the chairman of the Russian State Duma's Defense Committee, Andrey Kartapolov, and his deputy, Andrey Krasov, introduced a bill that would end Russia's traditional seasonal conscription drives and enable year-round drafting.

Under the proposed legislation, authorities could issue draft notices at any time, and draft boards would operate continuously, from January 1 to December 31. Although recruits would still be officially sent to the army in two waves for now, the infrastructure would be in place for an uninterrupted conscription system.

The bill, submitted to the Duma just before the summer recess, is expected to pass during the fall session. If approved, it would take effect January 1, 2026.

Authorities explain the new practices as "a uniform distribution of the workload across the enlistment offices." The true intent is more sinister: to ensure a constant pipeline of troops to sustain the invasion of Ukraine, say human rights activists.

A directive from the president

Sponsors of the bill, who are from the ruling United Russia party, say they drafted it to carry out a directive from President Vladimir Putin.

Putin acts on personal whims, not state needs, and is "a dictator" who runs "a captured, occupied country where... [he] does what he wants," Ivan Chuvilyayev, spokesperson for the Idite Lesom (Get Lost) movement, which helps Russian men escape conscription, told Kontur.

"We all know that Putin is a terrorist," he added.

In such a system, Chuvilyayev said, bills come up for enactment, not for debate. The bill on conscription leaves room for broad and arbitrary interpretation, common in Russian legislation.

It could tie into recent amendments allowing a soldier to sign a contract immediately after a draft board's decision, he said. If medical boards assessing men's fitness for service meet year round, the number of contract soldiers could rise as authorities push conscripts to sign during their physicals.

Another flaw, he said, is timelines that make no sense. A draft board could approve someone for service but not send him to the army for months, providing time to disappear.

The militarization of society

Putin has no intention of ending the war in Ukraine and plans to confront not just Ukraine but "the whole world," Alexei Tabalov, a rights activist and director of the NGO Shkola Prizyvnika (Conscript School), said.

This mindset of a "country encircled by enemies" is fueling Russia's militarization, he told Kontur.

The result is a growing demand for troops -- "cannon fodder for the front" and men under heavy pressure to sign army contracts.

The Kremlin needs conscripts both for future conflicts, potentially with the Baltic states or Moldova, and to sustain the occupying regime, said Tabalov.

He linked the proposed year-round draft to recent changes allowing draft board decisions to remain valid for a year, calling the move "half-hearted" and predicting tighter measures ahead. The maximum conscription age recently rose to 30, and this spring's 160,000-man draft was the largest in 14 years, he noted.

"We're seeing attempts to loosen the health requirements in order to draft more men," Tabalov added. "I think that before too long there will be a reexamination of compulsory military service and men will be sent into the army year round."

The bill, he said, gives Putin "flexibility" to set conscription periods at will, keeping them continuous if needed or seasonal if not. In that sense, the law is "logical and effective" for the Kremlin.

A constant state of tension

"With all these registries that will soon become operative, it will be harder for conscripts to hide from the draft bureaus," Tabalov said, noting that the change eliminates the breathing room they once had to prepare.

Most conscripts will live in "constant tension" knowing they could be called up any day of the year, Mikhail Liberov, coordinator of the Movement of Conscientious Objectors to Military Service in Russia, told Kontur.

The bill redefines conscription periods as the times when recruits are sent to military units, which should prevent call-ups outside those windows. But Liberov said there is "no guarantee," and the army could still forcibly transport draftees to assembly points weeks before official dates.

Initial registration events, usually held in the first quarter, could be merged with conscription drives, creating "disarray in the draft bureaus," he said. While such confusion might help some conscripts delay service, Liberov said year-round drafting would make that advantage minimal.

At the same time, the change carries a financial cost: physicians and draft board members now working six and a half months a year would move to full-year schedules, nearly doubling payroll costs, Liberov noted.

Conscripts as a bargaining chip

Alexei Baranovsky, a journalist and veteran of the Freedom of Russia Legion, called the proposed year-round draft one of the Kremlin's main tools to offset battlefield losses.

Russian authorities tell citizens that conscripts will not serve in Ukraine and will be limited to administrative duties, but Baranovsky said reality is different.

"We're actually seeing that these conscripts are ... regularly being captured by the Ukrainian army," he said, citing the Kursk operation among other examples. "Young meat is sent to slaughter just like old meat."

Ukrainian forces entered Kursk province, Russia, in August 2024 and held large tracts of it for seven months.

For Ukraine, an influx of Russian conscripts is "in theory" not the worst outcome, Baranovsky said. Many are fresh out of school, lack physical development and receive minimal training, sometimes firing just "one or two magazines at the range" before they go to combat.

Conscripts have higher "exchange value" in captivity than contract soldiers, who often come from marginalized backgrounds and are rarely swapped.

"As long as Russia is taking conscripts ... Ukraine can get its POWs [prisoners of war] back,” Baranovsky said.

In this environment, Tabalov urged Russians to avoid service at all costs: "Nowadays the army means death, either moral or physical."