The Federation Council proposes to introduce punishment for evading mobilization and untimely support of SVO participants

Senators are preparing an initiative to introduce liability for officials for untimely provision of support measures to participants in a special military operation (SVO) and combat veterans. Senator from Crimea Olga Kovitidi announced this on Friday at the round table “On the need to criminalize acts directed against the mobilization and enforcement of martial law or wartime regime.” Judging by the open part of the discussion, we can also expect tougher penalties for evading mobilization and inciting it.

Special operation, stated at the meeting round table Olga Kovitidi, identified the need to criminalize a number of acts. Conventionally, they can be divided into three groups: directly related to the conduct of military operations, related to the partial mobilization announced in September 2022, and related to ensuring the conditions for conducting the military action. The need to counter attacks has already served as the starting point for many important legislative changes, Ms. Kovitidi recalled: in particular, last fall, amendments to the Criminal Code were adopted, significantly tightening criminal liability for crimes against military service. And their commission during the period of mobilization or hostilities was classified as aggravating circumstances.

The imperfection of legal norms and the lack of a unified approach to the formation of databases subject to mobilization were also revealed, but here too, work was done to correct the mistakes, the senator noted: work is already underway to create a single information resource with citizens’ data, which is necessary in such cases.

The electronic register of summonses and persons liable for military service, as promised by the Ministry of Digital Development, should be created before December 31, 2023, and will be put into operation in 2024.

Ms. Kovitidi also recalled that Parliament passed the law, prohibiting conscripts from leaving the country from the moment the summons is sent to them. Finally, parliamentarians proposed introducing criminal liability for officials for sending untrained military personnel to a combat zone and their lack of “full-fledged equipment, clothing and other material supplies.” True, the government did not support this initiative, citing the fact that such illegal actions are already covered by a number of elements of the Criminal Code, but legislators, according to Ms. Kovitidi, continue to work in this direction.

“Today the issue of responsibility of officials for the untimely provision of social protection measures to veterans and disabled combatants is relevant,” said the senator. “We are working on such an initiative. The goal of the initiative is correct and understandable – the implementation of state guarantees for participants in a special military operation.” During the NWO period, the socio-political and socio-economic situation in the country remains “difficult,” she emphasized: “New challenges regularly arise, to counter which effective legal mechanisms are needed. This is especially relevant in connection with the increasing destructive activities of foreign intelligence services, which are increasingly using propaganda, agitation and intelligence apparatus, trying to destabilize the situation within the country and undermine the authority of the authorities.”

A significant part of the discussion took place behind closed doors – it was extended, among other things, to discuss the initiatives of the Ministry of Defense and the Prosecutor’s Office in the field of ensuring the wartime regime.

However, as follows from the open part of the discussion, we can expect the emergence of new elements of crime in Art. 328 of the Criminal Code (evasion of mobilization): they were proposed to be developed by Igor Butrim, a member of the academic council of the Institute of State and Law. Thus, responsibility for failure to appear for conscription for military service should extend to those already transferred to the reserve, the scientist believes. Also, in his opinion, incitement to evade mobilization and organization of such a crime should be punished.

Senator from the Zaporozhye region Dmitry Vorona said that he “has a great desire to regulate the prosecution of volunteers for improper performance of their contractual duties.” In terms of pay and benefits, they have already been equated to military personnel, but it is not yet possible to hold them accountable for desertion and failure to comply with orders, he explained. “Literally yesterday I signed a bill on the responsibility of volunteers,” State Duma deputy Yuri Shvytkin reassured his colleague (the document from a group of authors led by the chairman of the Duma Defense Committee Andrei Kartapolov was submitted to the Duma on the morning of November 10).

Anastasia Kornya