ponement of the mobilization for the fathers of three children is not obligatory, but indicative. On this subject said in a letter from Deputy Chief of the General Staff of Russia Yevgeny Burdinsky in response to a request from State Duma Deputy Nina Ostanina.
At the end of January, the parliamentarian spoke to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, asking him to clarify whether ponement order for the fathers of three children is valid, since the military registration and enlistment offices refuse to take it into account. In a letter sent to the head of the military department in mid-February, Ostanina called on Shoigu to instruct military registration and enlistment offices to enforce the decree.
In a letter responding to Ostanina’s appeals, Deputy Chief of Staff Yevgeny Burdinsky said that ponement instructions “did not stop their actions”, but at the same time “have a recommendatory character for the projects of mobilization commissions”.
“Now the leapfrog in the regions is clear, where everyone has interpreted the instructions in their own way. It is not clear just how the instructions of the military department can be advisory. These are guidelines, after all, not recommendations,” – noted deputy in his telegram chain.
On October 4, the General Staff, on behalf of Shoigu, sent updated instructions to military registration and enlistment offices outlining the categories of citizens who receive a reprieve from mobilization service, including including fathers who have three or more dependent children under the age of 16. However, as Ostanina said, in some cases during mobilization, military registration and enlistment offices denied the existence of such a decree.
On January 13, the military commissar of the Transbaikal Territory Yuri Shuvalov announced that the document on the right to postpone mobilization for fathers with many children was terminated. Ostanina, referring to a member of the Human Rights Council, Irina Kirkora, also said that the order to cancel such a delay was sent to the military registration and enlistment offices at the end of December 2022, signed by Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
However, on the same day, Andrei Turchak, secretary of the General Council of United Russia and first vice-president of the Council of the Federation, declared that “the adjournment of the mobilization for the fathers of three or more children remains”.
