Russia: Military service, including amendments to military service; whether women are treated differently than men; whether holders of military books are treated differently than conscripted persons; consequences of draft evasion and availability of an appeal process (2006-April 2015)

For information regarding Russian military service, both compulsory and voluntary, including requirements, length, alternatives and exemptions, and draft evasion, see Response to Information Request RUS103795.

1. Amendments to Military Service

According to an article published on 22 May 2013 by EUDO Citizenship, an "observatory within the European Union Observatory on Democracy (EUDO) web platform hosted at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute in Florence," on 15 May 2013, an amendment to Article 23 of the 1998 Federal Law No. 53 on Military Obligation and Military Service passed through second reading in Parliament (EUDO Citizenship 22 May 2013). The amendment, which was "set to be adopted into law" and enter into force on 1 August 2013, makes it mandatory for all 18 to 27 year old Russian citizens, including dual citizens residing in Russia, to serve in Russia's military forces even if they have already performed mandatory military service in another country's army (ibid.). Russia Today (RT), a state-funded television network (RT n.d.), reported in February 2013 that the amendment affects male immigrants under 27 years old, who are subject to conscription once they receive citizenship, whereas previously they qualified for an exemption if they served in the military in their country of origin (ibid. 8 Feb. 2013). According to the 2013 article by RT the initiators of the bill noted the "dire situation" with conscription, a product of "the demographic slump, the fact that many people receive delays and exemptions, and the general reluctance of Russians to join the military" (ibid.). Sources indicate that over 200,000 draft-age men avoided conscription in 2012 (ibid.; Sputnik News 13 Mar. 2013). The 2013 RT article indicates that while those who should be conscripted receive a summons and should report to service, many move and fail to report their new address (RT 8 Feb. 2013). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

According to an article published on 3 February 2015 by the International Business Times, a digital global news publication that covers business, economic, political and technological issues (International Business Times n.d.), Igor Sutyagin, a Russian-born military analyst at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London indicates that "traditionally around 50 percent of conscripts avoid the draft" in Russia (ibid. 3 Feb. 2015). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

According to the International Business Times article, "twice a year Russia drafts 150,000 to 200,000 men" (ibid.). According to the Russian Armed Forces, as cited in an article published in October 2014 by the Moscow Times, an English-language daily newspaper in Russia (The Moscow Times n.d.), and Reuters news agency, over 150,000 Russian men were to be called up for compulsory military service in the fall of 2014 (The Moscow Times and Reuters 1 Oct. 2014). According to a 27 March 2015 RT article, President Vladimir Putin signed a "decree on new military draft, according to which conscription offices throughout the country must summon about 150,000 people to military service." Further information about the decree could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

2. Alternative Civilian Service

According to RT, "ideological or religious pacifists can take alternative civilian service, but that term is twice as long as regular military service" (27 Mar. 2015). According to a report on conscientious objection in Russia from 2002-2012 by Citizen Army Law, a human rights group for conscripts, military and alternative servicemen in Russia (Citizen Army Law n.d., 1), the length of alternative civilian service is 21 months, compared to a length of 12 months for regular military service (ibid., 2).

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a lawyer from Citizen Army Law stated that military servicemen who are already in the army (compulsory or voluntary service), are not able to refuse to serve on the basis of conscientious objection (ibid. 21 Apr. 2015). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

According to a 2013 report on the right to conscientious objection to military service by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Russia noted that alternative service is regulated by the Federal Law on Alternative Civilian Service and that, from 2009 to 2012, "the number of persons undertaking alternative service has steadily increased each year from 391 in 2009 to 587 in 2012" (UN 3 June 2013, para. 42).

The Citizen Army Law report provides the following statistics regarding the annual number of young men seeking to opt out of military service for ACS, noting that there is no precise data on how many applications were actually filed compared to the number of applications that were accepted:

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

The number of applications for ACS filed in Russia 1800 854 319 439 443 473 730 879

% of applications satisfied [accepted] 71 64 86 91 85 98 93 91

(Citizen Army Law n.d., 3-4)

The UN report indicates that the organization Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg, a branch of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia, an NGO network dedicated to improving transparency and exposing human rights abuses in the Russian military (Index 5 Mar. 2015), alleged that although Russia possesses an alternative service law, "according to non-governmental sources only 25 percent of applications were accepted by Draft Boards, and that inappropriate or unacceptable assignments were sometimes made that were incompatible with some applicant's religious or personal needs" (UN 3 June 2013, para. 60). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

According to the Citizen Army Law report, Russian law dictates that an application for alternative service must be filed by an applicant with a military draft committee six months prior to the draft campaign during which that applicant expects to be drafted into the army (ibid. n.d., 2). The report indicates that missing this application deadline is the reason "why most applications for alternative service are denied," though the report goes on to state that this issue has been successfully addressed through several rulings by the Russian Constitutional Court which confirm that an applicant cannot be denied alternative service for "merely formal reasons, such as missing the [application] deadline" (ibid.). Further and corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

The Citizen Army Law report also notes that another area of concern with the alternative service application process is the involvement of military authorities in the process itself; the report states that "staff of military draft committees arbitrarily refuse to accept applications for ACS [alternative conscription service] and offer misleading information about ACS," and sometimes the military draft committees send incomplete applications to the Labour Agency, or remove names from the list (ibid., 3). Despite these issues that it highlighted, the report states that the situation involving the right of conscientious objectors to opt out of military duty in Russia can be described as "satisfactory" (ibid.).

3. Consequences of Draft Evasion

Sources report that evading the military draft is considered a criminal offence, punishable by up to two years in prison (ibid.; RT 27 Mar. 2015). According to Major General Alexander Nikitin, a department head at the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office in Russia, as cited in the October 2013 Moscow Times article, in the spring [of 2013], "more than 15,000 conscripts were convicted of administrative offences related to evading the draft, and an average yearly number of such offenders amounts to about 30,000 people" (The Moscow Times 1 Oct. 2013). In the Moscow Times 2013 article, Nikitin was quoted as stating that about 1,000 conscripts per year are convicted of this offence in Russia (1 Oct. 2013). According to the lawyer from Citizen Army Law,

[t]here are administrative and criminal penalties for draft evasion. The kind of penalty depends on the moment when the evasion took place: if this is evasion from medical examination, for example, the evader will be fined with approx. 10 EUR. [approx. $C13]; if there is evasion from coming to the assembly point for sending to the army, there may be criminal responsibility, including imprisonment. (21 Apr. 2015)

Information about the appeal process for draft evasion could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

4. Women in the Military

According to a 2013 article on the role of women in Russia's Armed Forces by the Jamestown Foundation, a "provider of research and analysis on conflict and instability in Eurasia" (The Jamestown Foundation n.d.a), published in the Foundation's Eurasia Daily Monitor (EDM) which surveys recent developments in Eurasia (ibid. n.d.b), only men are conscripted to the Russian military while women can volunteer to join, and serve under contract (ibid. 26 Nov. 2013). According to the article, there were approximately 29,000 women serving in the Armed Forces [in 2013] (ibid.). The article notes that approximately 40,000 women served in the military in 2012 (ibid.). The article further notes that that the number of women serving in the military is decreasing; some estimates indicate that female numbers have "dropped by two thirds since 2007" (ibid.). Similarly, according to the lawyer from Citizen Army Law, a recent article in the Russian media indicated that the amount of women in the Russian army has decreased from 30,000 to 11,000 (Citizen Army Law 21 Apr. 2015).

According to the Citizen Army Law Lawyer, women are rarely appointed to "higher positions" in the Russian army, and usually serve as "medical servants or junior commanders" (ibid.). The 2013 Jamestown Foundation article states that, according to a Russian news agency in 2012, "among 2,000 female officers, there were only twelve colonels" (ibid). The article notes further that none of the 29,000 women serving in the army [in 2013] held positions above the rank of colonel, noting that "3.5 percent serve in command posts; the remainder function in posts such as staff workers, medical and financial specialists, or in the communications troops" (Jamestown Foundation 26 Nov. 2013). The article also notes that approximately 19,000 women served on contracts as soldiers and sergeants [in 2013] (ibid.).

Quoting information obtained from the Ministry of Defence website, the 2013 Jamestown Foundation article notes that in 2012, the Russian state "decorated 22 female members of the Armed Forces and 4,500 were awarded medals by the Ministry" (ibid.).

According to the Citizen Army Law lawyer, based on the cases the organization deals with, the problem of discrimination against women in the army is not a topical issue (Citizen Army Law 21 Apr. 2015).

Further and corroborating information on whether women are treated differently than men in the army could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

Information regarding military books and whether holders of military books are treated differently than conscripted persons could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Citizen Army Law. 21 April 2015. Correspondence from a lawyer to the Research Directorate.

_____. N.d. "On the Implementation of the Right to Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Russia in 2002-2012." [Accessed 13 Apr. 2015]

European Union Democracy Observatory (EUDO) on Citizenship. 22 May 2013. Shushanik Makaryan. "Russia Makes Military Service Mandatory Regardless of Prior Service in Foreign Army." [Accessed 9 Apr. 2015]

_____. N.d. "Project Info: About the Consortium and Network." [Accessed 14 Apr. 2015]

Index on Censorship. 5 March 2015. Helen Womack. "#IndexAwards2015: Campaigning Nominee Soldiers' Mothers." [Accessed 19 Apr. 2015]

International Business Times. 3 February 2015. Christopher Harress. "Young Russians Dodge Draft More and More to Avoid Risk of Fighting in Ukraine." [Accessed 21 Apr. 2015]

_____. N.d. "About Us." [Accessed 21 Apr. 2015]

Jamestown Foundation. 26 November 2013. Roger McDermott. "The Role of Women in Russia's Armed Forces." Eurasia Daily Monitor. Vol. 10, Issue 213. [Accessed 22 Apr. 2015]

_____. N.d.a "About Us." [Accessed 22 Apr. 2015]

_____. N.d.b. "About EDM." [Accessed 22 Apr. 2015]

The Moscow Times. 1 October 2013. Natalya Krainova. "Fall Military Draft Begins with Warnings of Hazing." [Accessed 21 Apr. 2015]

_____. N.d. "About Us." [Accessed 21 Apr. 2015]

The Moscow Times and Reuters. 1 October 2014. "More than 150,000 Russian Men Called Up for Mandatory Conscription." [Accessed 19 Apr. 2015]

Russia Today (RT). 27 March 2015. "Draft Dodgers to be Banned from Top Posts in Government, Courts." [Accessed 30 Mar. 2015]

_____. 8 February 2013. "New Russian Citizens to get Call-Up for Military Service." [Accessed 30 Mar. 2015]

_____. N.d. "About RT." [Accessed 21 Apr. 2015]

Sputnik News. 13 March 2013. "Over 240,000 Russian Men Dodged Draft Last Year." [Accessed 21 Apr. 2015]

United Nations (UN). 3 June 2013. Human Rights Council. "Analytical Report on Conscientious Objection to Military Service." (A/HRC/23/22) [Accessed 8 Apr. 2015]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: The following were unable to provide information for this Response: professor specializing in Russian, Eurasian, and Central Asian studies at Carleton University; professor specializing in Russian military at the University of Toronto; professor specializing in Russian politics at Carleton University; program manager at Swedish Defence Research Agency; representative of Yandex dealing with conscientious objection; senior research scientist at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.

Attempts to contact the following were unsuccessful within the time constraints of this Response: Citizen's Watch; Conscience and Peace Tax International; Danish Institute for Human Rights; Friends House Moscow; international security lecturer at Nottingham University; professor specializing in Russian history and military at the University of Ottawa; representative of Conflict Studies Research Centre in the UK; representative of the Jamestown Foundation; representative of Soldier's Mothers of St. Petersburg; Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia; War Resisters International.

Internet sites, including: Agence France-Presse; Amnesty International; Australia Human Rights Commission; Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation; Caucasian Knot; CNN Point; Danish Institute for Human Rights; Danish Refugee Council; ecoi.net; Factiva; Freedom House; Friends House Moscow; Former Soviet Union Monitor; Gazeta.ru; German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees; Haaretz; Human Rights Quarterly; Human Rights Watch; Interfax; International Civil Society Centre; International Crisis Group - Central Asia; Institute for War and Peace Reporting; Ireland - Refugee Documentation Centre; Jane's Intelligence Review; Jane's Terrorism Watch Report; Journal of Refugee Studies; Kommersant; Norwegian Country of Origin Information Centre; Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty; Rossiyskaya Gazeta; Russia - Ministry of Defense; Swiss Refugee Council; United Kingdom - Home Office; United Nations - RefWorld, UN Women, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; United States - Department of State; Yandex.