Military lawyer revealed the background of the still valid presidential decree on mobilization

The mystery of the “other provisions” of the document and the “closed item”

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the call for partial mobilization has been completed, but other provisions of the document continue to operate. Peskov did not say what specific points of the decree are in question. And so everything is completely confused.

Military lawyer Oleksandr Skovorodko explained what “other provisions” of the Presidential Decree on partial mobilization might mean. And also whether they are obliged to reveal to the Russians the secret of the “closed point” of this document.

– Alexander Vikentievich, did the partial mobilization end or not?

– Not. You already explained that it is not over.

– How so, because the president promised?!

– From the point of view of a lawyer, everything is very clear here. If you carefully read what the president said on November 1, 2022, it becomes clear what he had in mind: as part of the partial mobilization in the country, conscription to the Armed Forces has been completed. But the fact is that mobilization is not limited to one appeal. Although for ordinary people it is basically the same thing. In fact, mobilization is a whole range of measures aimed at bringing the armed forces and infrastructure of the state to function under certain conditions. This also applies to conscription for military service. The call is only part of the mobilization activities. Look at the rest of the paragraphs of the Presidential Decree and you will see that they are working and are being implemented to this day. For example, point four, that contracts concluded by military personnel continue to be valid until the end of the period of a special military operation. The same applies to all other points of this Decree: regarding the monetary allowance of the mobilized, financing of measures for partial mobilization, granting a deferral, and so on. Therefore, there can be no Decree on demobilization in the current situation. Since the Decree on partial mobilization continues.

– As for the “closed clause” of the Decree – has it been fulfilled? It seems to have been said that it contains information about the number of conscripts, as well as whether there will be next waves of conscription.

– This is where it gets really interesting. According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and, more precisely, Article 15 Part 3, any normative legal acts affecting the rights, freedoms and duties of a person and a citizen cannot be applied if they are not officially published for general information. The Constitution has the highest legal force, direct effect and is applied throughout the territory of the Russian Federation. Laws and other legal acts applied in the Russian Federation must not contradict the Constitution. The Decree of the President is also a normative legal act. And it seems that it should be published, especially in the paragraph that directly affects the rights, freedoms and duties of citizens. Unpublished acts, according to the same Constitution, do not apply.

– Item 7 is “for official use”, and therefore it is classified?

– “DSP” is information of a confidential nature. Therefore, there is another document that we can refer to – Presidential Decree 763 of May 23, 1996 “On the procedure for publishing and coming into force acts of the President of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation and regulatory legal acts of federal executive bodies.” See paragraph 10. “Regulatory legal acts of federal executive bodies, except for acts and their individual provisions containing state secrets, or confidential information that is not published in the prescribed manner, do not entail legal consequences as not having entered into force, and cannot serve as a basis to regulate relevant legal relations, apply sanctions to citizens, officials and organizations for failure to comply with the instructions contained therein. These acts cannot be referred to in resolving disputes. A document marked “For Official Use” does not appear to be a document containing state secrets.

– However, the information in it may be confidential, which is also referred to in paragraph 10 of Decree 763. And therefore be closed.

– Yes maybe. And while we do not know what exactly is contained in the closed clause of the Decree on partial mobilization, we cannot answer the question whether new waves of conscription are possible or not.