Russia's year-round conscription: what it means for LGBTQ+ people and how to deal with the draft office
Since 1 January 2026, Russian military enlistment offices have operated without seasonal breaks, and an electronic summons registry now restricts the rights of anyone who fails to appear. In a livestream hosted by the St. Petersburg LGBTQ+ group Coming Out, Sasha Belik, a lawyer with the Movement of Conscientious Objectors (DSO), set out how gay and transgender conscripts should act under these conditions. Below is a summary of the main recommendations.
Russia's spring dispatch of conscripts to military units runs from 1 April to 15 July, and the chance of receiving a summons or being confronted by an enlistment office peaks during these weeks. For LGBTQ+ people, the stakes are higher than for other conscripts. After Russia's Supreme Court designated the "international LGBT movement" as "extremist" in November 2023, openly discussing one's orientation or gender identity with a draft office can lead not to an exemption but to persecution.
The group Coming Out addressed how to act in a recent livestream featuring DSO lawyer Sasha Belik. The key points are set out below. This is an overview, not individual legal advice: the situation is changing quickly, and in contested cases it is worth contacting specialist lawyers (contacts at the end).
What year-round conscription changed — and what it did not
There has been no fundamental overhaul, the speakers stress. The year-round conscription law, signed by Vladimir Putin in November 2025, switched enlistment offices to continuous operation from 1 January 2026: medical examinations, psychological screening and draft-board hearings now take place throughout the year rather than only in spring and autumn.
The dispatch of recruits to units, however, remains seasonal: 1 April to 15 July and 1 October to 31 December. A presidential decree sets the 2026 target at 261,000 people aged 18 to 30. In effect, "year-round" means only that summonses — to update records or to attend a medical board — can now arrive in any month.
One outdated piece of advice is worth dispelling. The tactic of "never showing up and ignoring summonses" was viable until roughly the end of 2022; today, DSO says, it is dangerous. The conscript's main objective has shifted — it is now to build careful, documented communication with the enlistment office.
Where to start: paperwork, not avoidance
Lawyers advise preparing in advance, without waiting for a summons. The opening plan comes down to three steps.
Assemble your medical history. Obtain your outpatient record — both the childhood file and, if you have one, the adult file — and write out every diagnosis, then make copies of the documents confirming them. This is the evidentiary basis for obtaining a non-conscription fitness category.
File an application for Alternative Civilian Service (AGS). This is the first document to send to the enlistment office — by registered mail through the Russian Post, keeping the dispatch receipt. A template is available in DSO's catalogue of materials.
Document any non-appearance. A summons can arrive literally the day before the date you are called in. If you are not prepared to appear, the speakers advise documenting illness that day — calling an ambulance to your home or obtaining a certificate from a local doctor — so that the non-appearance has a valid reason.
The logic is straightforward: systematically ignoring summonses (two or more) can be treated by the enlistment office as deliberate draft evasion, which carries criminal risk. Regular written correspondence accompanied by certificates confirming illness removes that risk. All certificates are attached to the medical file and later added to your personal case file.
Types of summons
Summonses come in several types, and the response to each is the same. The most common is a summons to update records or verify military-registration documents. Also frequent are summonses for a medical examination and for a draft-board hearing. They may arrive on paper or electronically.
Appearing in person makes sense only under two conditions: you have gathered a sufficient set of medical documents and are confident in your position, and you are ready to deal with the office face to face. Until then, all communication is kept in writing.
Alternative Civilian Service
AGS is a form of service in which a person works instead of joining the army. The state is obliged to grant it where convictions or religious belief do not allow a person to bear arms. From 2026, the filing deadline is tied to the planned dispatch period rather than to the conscription season itself.
The application is worth sending even if you have no intention of performing it. Doing so signals your position to the office and increases the chance the matter is resolved at the medical-examination stage rather than reaching a full draft board. The list of occupations to which people are assigned under AGS is public and available online.
A note on timing. It is best to file for AGS in advance, before dispatch begins. If you missed that window, file two different applications at once — one for the current period and one for the next. The texts should differ in both wording and form.
Fitness categories: the goal is "V"
The Russian system uses five categories:
The enlistment office is required to request medical data itself, but this should not be relied upon. If there are no records about you in the file, lawyers recommend filing a complaint against the office and attaching the documents yourself (a template is in DSO's catalogue).
Medical documents: what exactly must be proven
For a diagnosis to work, lawyers identify three essential elements.
One important detail: the wording in dispensary-observation certificates must match, word for word, the wording in the Schedule of Diseases — the official document used to determine fitness. These are terms such as "protracted," "pronounced" and "worsening."
What LGBTQ+ people need to know
This is where the approach has shifted most over the past few years. It used to be possible to state that you were gay and be referred for additional examination. DSO now advises against this: it creates a risk of further persecution.
Gay people are advised to follow the general route: gather the basic set of documents, prepare complaints, and file for AGS.
Transgender people are offered different scenarios depending on their documents:
The cost of not appearing: the summons registry
Ignoring summonses is especially risky in 2026 because of automation. From the moment a summons is posted in the electronic registry, the conscript is barred from leaving Russia. If 20 days pass after the stated date and the person has neither appeared nor confirmed a valid reason, the system imposes five further restrictions without any court ruling: bans on driving and registering a vehicle, on real-estate transactions, on obtaining loans, and on registering as a sole trader or self-employed person. They are lifted only after the person appears at the enlistment office.
This is why documents are prepared in advance, and why, on dates when you are summoned but do not appear, medical certificates of illness are collected — a valid reason for non-appearance.
Frequently asked questions
I'm a trans man and have already changed my gender marker to male. What should I do? Register for military service within two weeks of changing your documents, and pursue category "V" following the recommendations above in order to obtain a military ID. Those in Moscow are advised to register in the surrounding region or a nearby city: at Moscow's central conscription point, in DSO's experience, staff are often incompetent.
My university requires a military ID, I'm 18, and I'm not registered. You need to file an application to register for military service, prepare the documents from templates, and add them to your personal case file. After that, a registration certificate is issued, which is what you submit to the university.
I'm a trans woman with an F64.0 diagnosis, but I didn't manage to change my gender marker. You can add this diagnosis to your file and obtain category "V" through it. It is also worth getting an endocrinologist's certificate confirming lifelong hormone therapy.
I'm liable for service (a medical worker) — should I fear mobilization? There is a list of occupations for which women are liable for service, but there is no need to panic. You are not obliged to appear on a summons, and in the event of mobilization you can request AGS.
I'm a trans woman with a female gender marker, but I was placed on the register. File an application to be removed from the military register and send it to the enlistment office.
Where to get help
Russia's spring dispatch of conscripts to military units runs from 1 April to 15 July, and the chance of receiving a summons or being confronted by an enlistment office peaks during these weeks. For LGBTQ+ people, the stakes are higher than for other conscripts. After Russia's Supreme Court designated the "international LGBT movement" as "extremist" in November 2023, openly discussing one's orientation or gender identity with a draft office can lead not to an exemption but to persecution.
The group Coming Out addressed how to act in a recent livestream featuring DSO lawyer Sasha Belik. The key points are set out below. This is an overview, not individual legal advice: the situation is changing quickly, and in contested cases it is worth contacting specialist lawyers (contacts at the end).
What year-round conscription changed — and what it did not
There has been no fundamental overhaul, the speakers stress. The year-round conscription law, signed by Vladimir Putin in November 2025, switched enlistment offices to continuous operation from 1 January 2026: medical examinations, psychological screening and draft-board hearings now take place throughout the year rather than only in spring and autumn.
The dispatch of recruits to units, however, remains seasonal: 1 April to 15 July and 1 October to 31 December. A presidential decree sets the 2026 target at 261,000 people aged 18 to 30. In effect, "year-round" means only that summonses — to update records or to attend a medical board — can now arrive in any month.
One outdated piece of advice is worth dispelling. The tactic of "never showing up and ignoring summonses" was viable until roughly the end of 2022; today, DSO says, it is dangerous. The conscript's main objective has shifted — it is now to build careful, documented communication with the enlistment office.
Where to start: paperwork, not avoidance
Lawyers advise preparing in advance, without waiting for a summons. The opening plan comes down to three steps.
Assemble your medical history. Obtain your outpatient record — both the childhood file and, if you have one, the adult file — and write out every diagnosis, then make copies of the documents confirming them. This is the evidentiary basis for obtaining a non-conscription fitness category.
File an application for Alternative Civilian Service (AGS). This is the first document to send to the enlistment office — by registered mail through the Russian Post, keeping the dispatch receipt. A template is available in DSO's catalogue of materials.
Document any non-appearance. A summons can arrive literally the day before the date you are called in. If you are not prepared to appear, the speakers advise documenting illness that day — calling an ambulance to your home or obtaining a certificate from a local doctor — so that the non-appearance has a valid reason.
The logic is straightforward: systematically ignoring summonses (two or more) can be treated by the enlistment office as deliberate draft evasion, which carries criminal risk. Regular written correspondence accompanied by certificates confirming illness removes that risk. All certificates are attached to the medical file and later added to your personal case file.
Types of summons
Summonses come in several types, and the response to each is the same. The most common is a summons to update records or verify military-registration documents. Also frequent are summonses for a medical examination and for a draft-board hearing. They may arrive on paper or electronically.
Appearing in person makes sense only under two conditions: you have gathered a sufficient set of medical documents and are confident in your position, and you are ready to deal with the office face to face. Until then, all communication is kept in writing.
Alternative Civilian Service
AGS is a form of service in which a person works instead of joining the army. The state is obliged to grant it where convictions or religious belief do not allow a person to bear arms. From 2026, the filing deadline is tied to the planned dispatch period rather than to the conscription season itself.
The application is worth sending even if you have no intention of performing it. Doing so signals your position to the office and increases the chance the matter is resolved at the medical-examination stage rather than reaching a full draft board. The list of occupations to which people are assigned under AGS is public and available online.
A note on timing. It is best to file for AGS in advance, before dispatch begins. If you missed that window, file two different applications at once — one for the current period and one for the next. The texts should differ in both wording and form.
Fitness categories: the goal is "V"
The Russian system uses five categories:
- A — fit for service;
- B — fit with minor limitations;
- V — fit with significant limitations (not conscripted, but liable in the event of mobilization);
- G — temporarily unfit (for example, with a fracture — the board is repeated after recovery);
- D — unfit.
The enlistment office is required to request medical data itself, but this should not be relied upon. If there are no records about you in the file, lawyers recommend filing a complaint against the office and attaching the documents yourself (a template is in DSO's catalogue).
Medical documents: what exactly must be proven
For a diagnosis to work, lawyers identify three essential elements.
- A clinical picture. The condition did not appear yesterday — it has a documented history of development.
- A current state incompatible with service. It is best supported by a recent examination, no more than six months old.
- Dispensary observation. A record of it shows that the person is being treated, but the condition is not going into remission.
One important detail: the wording in dispensary-observation certificates must match, word for word, the wording in the Schedule of Diseases — the official document used to determine fitness. These are terms such as "protracted," "pronounced" and "worsening."
What LGBTQ+ people need to know
This is where the approach has shifted most over the past few years. It used to be possible to state that you were gay and be referred for additional examination. DSO now advises against this: it creates a risk of further persecution.
Gay people are advised to follow the general route: gather the basic set of documents, prepare complaints, and file for AGS.
Transgender people are offered different scenarios depending on their documents:
- AMAB with a female gender marker (assigned male at birth, but listed as female in documents) — file an application to be removed from the military register.
- AFAB with a male gender marker (assigned female at birth, listed as male in documents) — gather the same package, but with emphasis on two specialists. From an endocrinologist, request a certificate confirming lifelong hormone therapy: such conditions cannot be guaranteed in the army, and this is grounds for category "V." From a surgeon, obtain a certificate confirming the absence of a penis, to be added to the file.
The cost of not appearing: the summons registry
Ignoring summonses is especially risky in 2026 because of automation. From the moment a summons is posted in the electronic registry, the conscript is barred from leaving Russia. If 20 days pass after the stated date and the person has neither appeared nor confirmed a valid reason, the system imposes five further restrictions without any court ruling: bans on driving and registering a vehicle, on real-estate transactions, on obtaining loans, and on registering as a sole trader or self-employed person. They are lifted only after the person appears at the enlistment office.
This is why documents are prepared in advance, and why, on dates when you are summoned but do not appear, medical certificates of illness are collected — a valid reason for non-appearance.
Frequently asked questions
I'm a trans man and have already changed my gender marker to male. What should I do? Register for military service within two weeks of changing your documents, and pursue category "V" following the recommendations above in order to obtain a military ID. Those in Moscow are advised to register in the surrounding region or a nearby city: at Moscow's central conscription point, in DSO's experience, staff are often incompetent.
My university requires a military ID, I'm 18, and I'm not registered. You need to file an application to register for military service, prepare the documents from templates, and add them to your personal case file. After that, a registration certificate is issued, which is what you submit to the university.
I'm a trans woman with an F64.0 diagnosis, but I didn't manage to change my gender marker. You can add this diagnosis to your file and obtain category "V" through it. It is also worth getting an endocrinologist's certificate confirming lifelong hormone therapy.
I'm liable for service (a medical worker) — should I fear mobilization? There is a list of occupations for which women are liable for service, but there is no need to panic. You are not obliged to appear on a summons, and in the event of mobilization you can request AGS.
I'm a trans woman with a female gender marker, but I was placed on the register. File an application to be removed from the military register and send it to the enlistment office.
Where to get help
- Movement of Conscientious Objectors (DSO) — a human-rights organization that helps people obtain lawful exemption from conscription; it runs consultations and a catalogue of document templates. Its website, stoparmy.org, is blocked in Russia and accessible via VPN; the organization is listed in the registry of "foreign agents." Telegram: @stoparmy.
- Peace Plea (Prizyv k sovesti) — instructions and legal support for conscripts: peaceplea.org.
- School of Conscript (Shkola prizyvnika) — educational resources and representation of conscripts in disputes with enlistment offices.
- Coming Out — support for LGBTQ+ people: comingoutspb.org.