With electronic mobilization, it will soon be almost impossible to avoid summons to go to the Ukrainian front. franceinfo was able to talk with a young man who plans to discreetly leave Russia, so as not to be enlisted in the army.
Roman*, 28, lives in a big city in Russia where he works as an educator. So far, he has done everything to avoid the army. Preferring to pay a bribe, the equivalent of 250 euros, for not doing his military service. “I paid for them to forget me. Let’s say…they lost my ID…on purpose ” How to avoid being sent to the front, in Ukraine? This is the question that thousands of young Russians are asking themselves, while the Ukrainian counter-offensive is looming. Last September, Vladimir Putin announced a “partial mobilization“causing hundreds of thousands of people to flee abroad. Fears were revived in Russia with the vote, on April 11, of a new law allowing reservists to be mobilized electronically.
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Before the war, military service was compulsory in Russia from 18 to 27 years old. But since then the law has changed: it is from 18 to 30 years old, which means that Roman, at 28, will not be able to escape the wave of appeals in October. “I feel cheated. Because you plan your life, you make plans, you want to realize yourself. But in the end, they deceive you, and you become a toy, the piece of a huge bloody and useless game. That’s why I want to run away.”
More and more difficult to avoid summons
With electronic mobilization, it will soon be almost impossible to avoid summonses. They should arrive directly on a public service platform that everyone uses in Russia. “Open/not open… read, or not“, the document will be considered received by the authorities. JUntil then, the invitations had to be delivered by hand. A reservist can now be mobilized electronically even if the order is given to a third party. “For the moment, it is not in function. But when it will be the case, we will know it quickly, and it will be scary. It’s gonna go fast and it’ll be the start of trouble“.
It will no longer be possible to borrow money from banks, nor to sell or buy a car or an apartment. Not showing up at the recruiting office will signify a sort of social death. Roman has decided to leave Russia for Moldova. He plans to leave at least September, just before the convocations are sent out.
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This young man plans to leave the country on his own. But there are now many self-help groups on the internet. Groups that have flourished on Telegram, a social network widely used in Russia. For example, there is this string idite lessom. In Russian, it means, roughly: “go, get away in the woods“. Created the day after the mobilization, it now brings together hundreds of volunteers, lawyers, psychologists, available seven days a week. Since the beginning of the conflict, the group has helped 8,000 people to avoid the army and receives in this currently 600 to 700 calls per day Grigory Sverdlin, a refugee in Georgia, is behind the initiative.
“We recommend not going to recruiting offices, not living where you live.”
Grigory Sverdlin, at the origin of a self-help group to escape Russian mobilizationon franceinfo
“Unfortunately, there are almost no more legal ways to avoid being summoned, emphasizes Grigory Sverdin. We recommend that you make a power of attorney at the notary in the name of your close friends or family members, to have legal representative in case you are called up. We recommend transferring your assets in the name of your relatives or friends, so that you do not lose the possibility of managing them. These are the essential recommendations. For the rest, there are no generalities, it depends on the personal case.”
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“Exhausting the resources” of Russia
Another Telegram channel, with more than 40,000 subscribers, is that of the feminist anti-war Resistance movement. A movement that includes Daria Serenko, also a refugee in Georgia, recently passing through Paris. “Most of the time, wars end when one of the two sides has no more economic or human resources, notes Daria Serenko. So, in our view, the task of the anti-war movements is to exhaust the country’s resources, by all means, so that Vladimir Putin has fewer men at hand, less money. This is what the international community is trying to do. That Vladimir Putin has fewer resources, and that Ukraine, on the contrary, has more. Only that can help.”
In the meantime, Roman cannot talk to anyone, or almost about his desire to flee the country: “No, it’s dangerous. I have to choose my words, I have to speak in the second degree. If I find myself with someone who shares my views, we communicate very carefully, we support each other, but it does not exceed this framework. While the Russian authorities deny it, Roman is convinced of it: there will soon be, he says, a second wave of mobilization.
* the name has been changed