explainers

Russia’s conscription system will become year-round starting January 1. Here’s what that means for Moscow’s call-up capacity.

Source: Meduza

Though Russia’s conscription system is separate from its wartime mobilization campaign, completing mandatory military service against the backdrop of the full-scale war in Ukraine remains a major source of anxiety for many Russians. With the exception of the invasion’s chaotic first weeks, when conscripts were sent into combat despite official assurances to the contrary, there have been no apparent large-scale cases over the past 3.5 years in which these servicemen were deployed to Ukraine. Nonetheless, the risks remain high: conscripts are frequently assigned to guard dangerous stretches of the border, a job that led to some of their deaths and capture during the Ukrainian army’s 2024 incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. There’s also ample evidence that commanders have pressured conscripts into signing contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry.

All of this comes as the authorities have been trying to overhaul Russia’s conscription system, primarily by targeting citizens’ ability to evade military summonses. Their key tool has been a new electronic draft registry. Though it was officially launched nationwide in May 2025, experts have debated how fully operational it is, as well as the scope of the restrictions it imposes on conscripts’ rights. The answers to these questions still aren’t fully clear, but a new law signed by Putin on December 29 provides some new information about changes to the conscription system starting January 1, 2026. Here’s what we know now.

Conscription will become ‘year-round,’ but enlistment dates stay the same

President Vladimir Putin signed a bill on December 29 that will change how Russia handles mandatory military service beginning on January 1, 2026. From now on, conscription offices will operate year-round, rather than only during the country’s traditional spring and fall conscription campaigns.

However, young men aged 18–30 will still be conscripted into the army on the same schedule as before: between April 1 and July 15, and between October 1 and December 31. Outside of these periods, Russians may still receive conscription notices, but they can only be summoned for a medical examination or psychological assessment — not for immediate enlistment.

For the authorities, the change is meant to ease the workload of conscription offices and, if needed, make it easier to call up larger numbers of conscripts — for example, in the event of mobilization. For young men, it provides some clarity: they can visit a conscription office without the immediate risk of being drafted the same day.

Conscription decisions will now remain valid for one year

Conscription offices will be able to issue decisions on fitness for military service at any time. Once issued, a decision will remain in force for exactly one year. During this period, an individual can be sent to start their military service during the next official window, and new amendments mean that conscription decisions remain valid regardless of whether the conscript has moved to another region. If a conscript is not sent to begin their service before the decision expires, and he becomes eligible for a deferment while the decision is still in force, he can notify the conscription office.

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Conscripts can be barred from leaving the country for 30 days

In November 2025, a new amendment to the law “On Military Duty and Military Service” barred conscription offices from issuing summonses with reporting dates more than 30 days after they appear in the new online draft registry. In effect, this curtailed conscription offices’ ability to impose long travel bans via distant summons dates — but only because posting any summons in the registry already automatically triggers this restriction, which remains in force until the “draft-eligible citizen” reports to the conscription office.

In a radio interview in late December, lawyer and human rights activist Artem Klyga said that the summons registry became operational in late 2025. In practice, however, the exit ban is still not fully enforced: according to Klyga, most people who receive summonses are still able to leave the country without any problems.

Even once the system is fully up and running, some conscripts will likely be able to get around the restriction. In an investigation published earlier this month, iStories reported on a cyberattack on the developer behind the Unified Military Registration System that revealed the ability to quietly delete records of certain conscription-eligible individuals, “cancel summonses sent to them,” and “hide them from conscription lists.” Whom the military intends to protect in this way remains unclear.

Other restrictions not yet being enforced

Under the new law, if a conscript ignores a summons and fails to report to the conscription office by the specified deadline, additional restrictions are supposed to be imposed after 20 days:

A Meduza reader who has left Russia but did not remove himself from the military register said that, as of the end of this year, these restrictions are effectively nonexistent. In November, he received a notice stating that restrictive measures had been imposed on him, but he has still been able to take out loans.

Lawyer Artem Klyga said the same, explaining that there’s still no proper framework for enforcing these bans. “The rules for how they’re supposed to be activated simply haven’t been spelled out,” he told Meduza.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that the threat will remain “dormant” in 2026: the authorities could put an enforcement system in place at any moment.

Getting a student deferment will become harder

In the spring of 2025, Putin instructed the Russian government to come up with ways to reduce the number of paid enrollment slots at higher education institutions. Until then, universities themselves decided how many tuition-based slots to offer. Full-time university enrollment, meanwhile, has been one of the most common ways for young men to secure a deferment from compulsory military service.

In September, new amendments came into force giving the government the power to regulate the number of paid places at higher-education institutions. In November, lawmakers approved rules drafted by the Science and Higher Education Ministry that set caps on those places.

And in late December, the ministry’s head, Valery Falkov, announced plans to eliminate 45,000 paid university places — roughly a 13 percent reduction — for the 2026–2027 academic year.

There are still deferments for IT workers, but it’s unclear how they’ll work under the new law

Russia’s government decree granting deferments to IT workers was last updated on December 2, 2025. However, accredited organizations (those eligible to provide deferments for their employees) are still required to submit a list of their staff to the Digital Development Ministry 50 days before the start of the “next round of conscription,” rather than before employees are actually sent to service.

Putin signed the decree for the first “annual” conscription drive on December 29. In theory, this means that no company can submit the required information on time. However, the decree is likely to be revised early in the new year.

Conscripts still have the right to alternative civilian service

Russian conscripts who want to replace compulsory military service with alternative civilian service have to declare their intention more than six months before the call-up, and the new legislation doesn’t change this.

By law, conscription offices are supposed to take into account a citizen’s “education, specialty, qualifications, prior work experience, health, and family status” when assigning a profession and organization for alternative service. In practice, however, it’s up to the conscription office: they can send a young person to a completely different region for a job they know nothing about.

The relevant order from the Labor and Social Protection Ministry lists 271 possible jobs and positions for alternative service — from bacteriological production operator and occupational therapy instructor to metrology and meteorology technicians. These positions are offered in a wide range of organizations, from the State Kremlin Palace to hospitals in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine’s Kherson region.