Russian Military to Draft 147,000 New Recruits in Spring Call-Up 

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed an order allowing Russia's Defense Ministry to enlist 147,000 men for their compulsory military service in the upcoming spring call-up.

The number of draftees to be called up this year marks an increase of 12,500 compared to last year's recruitment figures.

The Defense Ministry will kick off the conscription campaign on Saturday, drafting eligible men between the ages of 18 and 27. The recruitment drive is scheduled to wrap up on July 15.

Enlistment officers will likely crack down on draft dodgers in order to meet Putin’s ambitious 147,000 target, according to experts quoted by the independent news outlet Agentstvo.

The experts also said that the pool of potential conscripts born between 1995 and 2005 has grown insufficiently to meet the military’s increasing demand for fresh troops, despite a steady rise in birthrates since 2000.

“There was definitely no surge [in birthrates], so the idea is apparently to catch as many [draft dodgers] as possible,” Ilya Kashnitsky, a professor of demography at the University of Southern Denmark, told Agentstvo.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/03/31/russian-military-to-draft-147000-new-recruits-in-spring-call-up-a80672