MOSCOW – The Kremlin introduced harsh new penalties for people who evade military call-up, adding to fears that the government is planning another mass mobilisation asrushed through Parliament earlier this weekUnder the new rules, the authorities can deliver military call-up notices both for conscripts and mobilised reservists online, and almost immediately bar the recipients from leaving the country.
Last year’s call-up of 300,000 reservists provoked public panic that prompted up to a million Russians to flee the country. Mr Putin later ordered officials to streamline and automate a mobilisation system that had not been updated in decades. “The most logical thing to do is never to come back until the end of the Putin regime,” said Ms Anastasia Burakova, founder of the Ark, an association helping Russians to leave for other countries.