 "Russia's Putin signs decree on spring military conscription")
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree outlining the usual spring conscription campaign, summoning up 150,000 individuals for mandatory military duty, according to a document posted on the Kremlin’s website on Sunday.
Starting at the age of 18, all males in Russia are expected to do a year of military duty or similar training throughout their higher schooling.
In July, Russia’s lower house of parliament decided to raise the maximum age of conscription for men from 27 to 30. The new legislation went into effect on January 1, 2024.
Compulsory military service has always been a contentious topic in Russia, with many men going to tremendous efforts to avoid receiving conscription papers during the twice-yearly call-up periods.
Conscripts cannot legally be deployed to fight outside Russia and were exempted from a limited mobilisation in 2022 that gathered at least 300,000 men with previous military training to fight in Ukraine - although some conscripts were sent to the front in error.
In September Putin signed an order calling up 130,000 people for the autumn campaign and last spring Russia planned to conscript 147,000.
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