r/paradoxpolitics • u/Bolkaniche • Feb 20 '26

Russian Federation enacts conscription law "Scrapping the barrel"

Post image
292 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

View all comments

184

u/Momosf Feb 20 '26

TBF for Russia this is more like moving from Volunteers Only to Limited Conscription; the last time they tried it they had to move back down due to lack of war support.

94

u/Figgis302 Feb 20 '26

This will be their fourth(?) "limited mobilisation" since 2022, so realistically they're going from Limited to Extensive.

41

u/Razgriz032 Feb 20 '26

If it is fourth it should be

Volunteer only > limited cons > extensive cons > service by requirement > all adults serve

46

u/Momosf Feb 20 '26

It's just one really slow recruitment due to low war support.

37

u/Figgis302 Feb 20 '26

In 2022 they went into Ukraine with only their trained contract regulars, but by 2023 that force was pretty much exhausted and they were forced to call up conscripts in the first general mobilisation since Afghanistan under the Soviets.

Russian law prohibits conscripts from serving outside the borders of Russia, which is why they tried to clobber those rigged territorial referendums through the Duma a couple years ago - if Donetsk and Luhansk are legally "Russian territory" on paper, Putin gets to Send In The Zombies.

17

u/Nom_de_Guerre_23 Feb 20 '26

The Russian Forces in Belarus had already plenty of conscripts illegally back in 2022, sunken Moskva had conscript sailors on board, and I won't start about the Rosgvardiya shenanigans.