16:55 24-09-2025

Russia Moves Toward Year-Round Military Conscription Bill

The State Duma approved in first reading a bill allowing year-round conscription in Russia, with dispatch dates unchanged and the law set to take effect in 2026.

On September 24, during a plenary session, deputies of the State Duma passed in the first reading a bill allowing conscription throughout the entire calendar year, from January 1 to December 31, based on a presidential decree.

The draft law was submitted to the lower chamber of parliament on July 22. Its sponsors are the head of the Defense Committee Andrei Kartapolov and the committee’s first deputy chairman Andrei Krasov.

At present, conscription in Russia is carried out twice a year: from April 1 to July 15 and from October 1 to December 31. Kartapolov explained that the goal of the new legislation is to streamline the work of local military enlistment offices.

If adopted, medical examinations, psychological assessments, and draft board sessions would be conducted year-round. However, the actual dispatch of conscripts to military service would remain limited to the traditional periods — from April 1 to July 15 and from October 1 to December 31.

The law is set to take effect on January 1, 2026, if passed in subsequent readings.

The Russian government has backed the initiative but called for revisions before the second reading. In its official response, the cabinet stressed the need to amend the Federal Law «On Military Duty and Military Service» to clearly distinguish between the concepts of conscription and the transfer of citizens into active service.