The government supported the increase in the age of children, giving the right to deferment from mobilization

A bill on this was submitted to the State Duma by deputies

A draft law has been submitted to the State Duma, which proposes to give a deferment from mobilization to parents of four children under the age of 18. Now the law gives such a delay only to parents of four children under the age of 16. The government supports the initiative, this is confirmed by a letter signed by Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov. The specialized Duma Defense Committee has not yet considered it.

The initiative was signed by 15 deputies from all Duma factions, among them the leaders of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (Gennady Zyuganov), New People (Aleksey Nechaev) and SR (Sergey Mironov), Vice Speaker Boris Chernyshov (LDPR), heads of two Duma committees : on labor (Yaroslav Nilov, LDPR) and on family, women and children (Nina Ostanina, KPRF). The only one who wished to become the author of United Russia, the deputy head of the Committee for Construction and Housing, Nikolai Alekseenko.

The current law “On mobilization and mobilization training” now guarantees a deferment “for those who have four or more dependent children under the age of 16 or who have one or more children under the age of 16 who are dependent and bring up without a mother.” For women, a deferral is given if there is one or more children under the age of 16. It is impossible to mobilize a citizen who has a pregnant wife for a period of at least 22 weeks and three more dependent children under the age of 16 years. The authors of the bill want to replace the number “16” with “18”, leaving everything else intact. And to extend the new rules “to legal relations that have arisen since September 21, 2022,” which apparently means: if citizens with four children under the age of 18 have already been mobilized, they must be returned home.

The explanatory note to the initiative recalls the background of its appearance. At a meeting of the State Duma on September 27, 2022, at the suggestion of the communists Nina Ostanina and Oleg Smolin, the Committee on Family, Women and Children was instructed by the chamber: to request information from the government on how it, the government, is going to correct the contradiction between the law “On Basic Guarantees of Rights child”, where a person is named a child under the age of 18, and the law “On mobilization …”, where the right to deferment is given only to families with children under the age of 16. The Committee sent a request, and at the end of October received an official response signed by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov. From this answer it follows that “the proposal regarding increasing the age of dependent children of citizens who are granted a deferment from conscription for military service for mobilization, from 16 to 18 years, is supported by the Government of the Russian Federation.”

“According to our information, the Ministry of Defense agreed with this proposal,” Mr. Smolin told MK. The deputy noted that a “light” version of the bill had been submitted to the State Duma “in order to achieve consensus and adoption,” but in fact, the authors wanted to prescribe in the law a deferral for parents of three or more children under the age of 18. And up to 23 years, when it comes to students studying full-time at universities and colleges.

Ms. Ostanina posted a screenshot of the government’s response on her Telegram channel. It follows from this that the cabinet’s opinion was indeed requested on a wider range of issues. And the government, by all appearances, generally agrees with the arguments of the deputies. The document recalls that by the Decree of President Yeltsin of May 5, 1992 “On measures of social support for large families,” the regional authorities independently determine the categories of families that are large, “taking into account national and cultural characteristics.” At the moment, the letter says, in all subjects of the Russian Federation, families with three or more children are included in the category of large families. In 82 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, families with many children retain the right to social support until the eldest child reaches the age of 18, while “in some constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the status is retained if the older child studies at a university full-time, but no longer than until he reaches 23 years of age.” But the government does not comment on the proposal to establish a deferment for having three or more children under the age of 18, and up to 23 years, if we are talking about a full-time student, the government does not comment in any way, supporting only an increase in the age of children …

The position of the relevant Defense Committee is still unknown. He has not yet considered the initiative submitted to the State Duma on November 9.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28908 dated November 10, 2022

Newspaper headline:
In the law on deferrals, “16” will be changed to “18”