In a single session, the State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly] approved the second and third readings of a bill that would prohibiting authorities from extraditing to other countries, for criminal prosecution or sentence execution, foreign citizens and stateless persons who have signed contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense. The bill adds a new clause to an article of the Criminal Procedure Code titled "Refusal to Extradite a Person." This legislation explicitly prohibits Russia from handing over any foreigner or stateless individual who is currently serving or has previously served on a contract basis in the Russian Armed Forces and other military formations, or who participated in combat operations within their...
Russia’s Ministry of Defense proposes amending the Military Conscription and Military Service Act to raise the maximum age limit for admission into military academies. The current system caps the entry age at 22 for applicants without military experience and at 24 for those who have previously served in the military. The new amendments would increase these age limits to 24 and 30, respectively, to "guarantee the fulfillment of the personnel order in the interests of staffing the Russian Armed Forces with officers."
Recruiters continue aggressively pressuring students to sign contracts with Russia’s Ministry of Defense, ostensibly for service in the Unmanned Systems Forces.
The State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly] unanimously approved the first reading of a bill to expand the scope of crime prevention activities. Legislators propose adding two new clauses to Article Six of the law "On the Basics of the Crime Prevention System" that aim to "prevent and suppress evasion of the duty to defend the Fatherland" and "counter the distortion of historical truth." The initiative would allow authorities to establish preventive supervision over people convicted of rehabilitating Nazism, insulting veterans, and evading military service. Law enforcement officers would gain the ability to conduct "preventive conversations" with these individuals, deliver warnings against breaking the law, place them...
Aleksandr Kurenkov, the head of Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations, announced that his agency and the Ministry of Defense had agreed to deploy conscripts to serve in units of the Federal Fire Service. The agencies plan to assign draftees to fight fires, manage emergencies, and conduct rescue operations amid a personnel shortage, which Kurenkov attributed to low wages. Under the Law on the Status of Servicemen, conscripts may fulfill their statutory military service in the agency’s rescue and military formations by applying to the relevant draft offices. However, a professional degree is required to hold military positions within the ministry.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense has drafted a bill counting each day of military service by "participants in the special military operation" as three days of civil service, professional experience, and general labor seniority when calculating service-based pensions. The bill also triples the credited service time for insurance pensions, replacing the existing double-credit standard.
Lawmakers have introduced a bill in the State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly] to expand social guarantees for Rosgvardia [Russian National Guard] and Interior Ministry employees taking part in the war against Ukraine. The measure would provide travel compensation for two family members or close relatives to visit personnel who are injured or fall ill during their service. This proposed legislation would extend a benefit that currently applies only to the families of military personnel.
The State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly] approved a bill in its first reading mandating genomic registration for troops involved in combat and counterterrorism operations. The bill was introduced in the State Duma on Jan. 24 after endorsement by the government’s legislative commission. If the legislation is enacted, military personnel and civil servants of the Russian Armed Forces and Rosgvardia [Russian National Guard], as well as volunteer fighters and Interior Ministry employees, will be required to provide DNA samples. The state will store this data until the individual reaches the age of 100 or, in the event of death, until officials verify their identity.
The Rostov region increased the sign-up bonus for Ministry of Defense contracts by 300,000 rubles [$3,910] for soldiers joining specific units listed in a government decree. The payment remains 2 million rubles [$26,000], a rate set in May 2025, for all other personnel. With this adjustment, recruits entering designated units—including those in the Unmanned Systems Forces—will receive a total of 2.7 million rubles [$35,200], which includes a federal component of 400,000 rubles [$5,210].
In the Lipetsk region, authorities increased the sign-up bonus for participating in the war from 600,000 to one million rubles [from $7,810 to $13,000] and raised the amount for enlisting in unmanned systems forces to 1.5 million rubles [$19,500]. Additionally, Governor Igor Artamonov ordered municipalities to guarantee a local supplement of at least 600,000 rubles [$7,810]. As a result, including the federal component of 400,000 rubles [$5,210], a recruit now receives two million rubles [$26,000] for a standard contract and 2.5 million rubles [$32,600] for service in unmanned systems forces.