Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree launching the autumn conscription campaign, under which the Armed Forces will be reinforced with 135,000 new conscripts.

According to the presidential order, the draft will take place from October 1 to December 31, 2025, targeting Russian citizens aged 18 to 30 who are not in the reserve and are subject to conscription under the federal law «On Military Duty and Military Service».

This follows a record-setting spring draft earlier in 2025, when authorities planned to recruit 160,000 conscripts — the largest number since 2011 — a target the General Staff confirmed was fully met. During the autumn campaign of 2024, 133,000 people were called up for service.

Starting in 2026, Russia may transition to a year-round conscription system, replacing the current two-phase model. A draft law introducing this change has already passed its first reading in the State Duma. Under the new system, conscription would run from January 1 to December 31, rather than in two separate periods (April 1 to July 15 and October 1 to December 31). The timing of when conscripts are sent to military units would remain unchanged.

Andrey Kartapolov, head of the State Duma’s Defense Committee and one of the bill’s authors, argued that the current approach is outdated and fails to meet modern needs given technological advancements and ongoing digitalization. He explained that the existing system requires the Ministry of Defense to issue new orders and duplicate regulatory documents every six months, a process he described as inefficient. The reform, he added, would help evenly distribute the workload across recruitment offices and streamline procedures such as medical checks and psychological evaluations.

The upcoming draft will also see the expanded use of electronic summons, a mechanism approved in 2023. These notices will be delivered via the state services portal Gosuslugi and will be considered served seven days after they appear in the registry, regardless of whether the recipient logs into the system.

If a conscript fails to report within 20 days of receiving the electronic summons, temporary restrictions will automatically be imposed. Additionally, failing to appear without a valid reason will lead to administrative penalties, including fines.