Press Release, 1.03.2023

Photo by Viktor Karatayev / Kommersant

The administration of the President of the Russian Federation believes that there are no legal grounds for issuing a separate decree on the completion of partial mobilisation. This is announced in an official response to the inquiry of Boris Vishnevsky, deputy head of the Yabloko faction of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg. The response came two months later after the inquiry.

The response states that the call for mobilisation “was carried out until the established number [of those mobilized] was reached, which was necessary for the fulfillment of the assigned tasks by the RF Armed Forces”, and that “according to the Russian Ministry of Defence, the established number was reached, and therefore the call for mobilisation was completed”. Therefore, “there are no legal grounds for issuing an act of the President of the Russian Federation in this regard”.

According to Boris Vishnevsky, there are actually such grounds, and a corresponding decree must be issued. Presidential Decree No. 647 of 21 September, 2022, runs that “until the end of the period of partial mobilisation,” previously concluded contracts for the military continue to operate, and the list of grounds on which contract soldiers can quit military service is sharply reduced, Vishnevsky explains.

“And despite the fact that the “established number” has been reached, since the period of partial mobilisation has not ended (and the decree does not say how long it lasts), these norms continue to operate. That is, contract soldiers (and those mobilised, having the status of contract soldiers by decree No 647) are sharply limited in their rights,” Boris Vishnevsky stresses.

Earlier, Yabloko deputies of regional parliaments in Moscow, Karelia, Pskov and Novgorod sent requests to the President of Russia to issue a decree on the end of partial mobilisation. Moscow City Duma deputy Maxim Kruglov has not yet received an answer. The rest of the deputies got refusals on their appeals to issue the decree, however, the motivation set forth by the same Presidential Administration sometimes changed.

Thus, the answer to the appeal of Emilia Slabunova (the Legislative Assembly of Karelia) it follows that there will be no such decree, since there are no “legal grounds” for it. A similar response was received by Anna Cherepanova (the Novgorod City Duma). In addition, the response to Cherepanova stated that the Ministry of Defence had announced the completion of partial mobilisation measures.

Meanwhile, Artur Gaiduk (the Pskov Regional Assembly) was informed by the Presidential Administration that the decree on mobilisation continued to be in force, since “military commissariats continue to recruit military units at the expense of citizens who have expressed a desire to voluntarily participate in the special military operation, as well as citizens who wish to enter the military contract service”. The Ministry of Defence, however, replied to Gaiduk that the decree on partial mobilisation had to go on being effective so that the mobilised do not lose their social guarantees and compensations.