The School of the Conscript and the Movement of Conscious Objectors said on September 29 that the refusals were recorded in Moscow, the Samara region and the Krasnoyarsk region.
In Moscow, a conscript tried to grant power of attorney to his mother. According to the School of the Conscript, the notary cited the man's conscription age and the fact that he had not performed military service. The applicant was also required to access the summons registry maintained by military commissariats and confirm that no summons had been sent to him. He was told that notaries are obliged to notify military commissariats about services they provide to conscripts.
In the Samara region, the mother of an 18-year-old conscript was asked by several notaries at once to provide an extract from the summons registry on the Gosuslugi government services portal. According to the School of the Conscript, the hotline of the Federal Notarial Chamber told her that no instructions imposing such a requirement had been issued. After the woman provided the extract, the notaries agreed to certify the power of attorney but refused to include in it the authority to remove her son from military registration or to represent his interests during a medical examination.
Another conscript from the Samara region told the Movement of Conscious Objectors that he approached four notaries. Three demanded an extract from the military registration registry. The fourth agreed to certify a power of attorney only for filing applications with the military commissariat, excluding the authority to remove him from the register.
In the Krasnoyarsk region, according to the Movement of Conscious Objectors, notaries have stopped certifying such powers of attorney. A conscript who was refused by several notaries in Krasnoyarsk at once approached the organization. The refusals were verbal, with notaries citing letters from the notarial chamber and the prosecutor's office. One notary issued a written refusal in the form of a ruling, and the Movement of Conscious Objectors is preparing a lawsuit over that case. The rights defenders obtained explanations from the regional notarial chamber on which that notary relied. According to the Movement of Conscious Objectors, the Federal Notarial Chamber may also have issued a similar information letter.
Movement of Conscious Objectors coordinator Timofei Vaskin said the state had "put pressure on the community of notaries in order to cut off at the root the right of conscripts to defense during conscription procedures." He said the chamber insists on the personal performance of military duty, although no one is asking to transfer to an attorney the right to undergo a medical commission in place of a conscript. According to Vaskin, the positions of the chambers are not binding on notaries, but in practice notaries place them above the law.
The rights defenders believe there are no legal grounds for refusal and cite Article 185 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and Article 5 of the Fundamentals of Russian Legislation on the Notarial System, which enshrines the independence of a notary. They recommend demanding an official ruling of refusal and appealing it, or turning to another notary, including in another city.
Problems with obtaining powers of attorney for military commissariats have arisen before. In 2024, the Movement of Conscious Objectors reported refusals by notaries in the Krasnoyarsk region, when several notaries also cited letters from the regional notarial chamber and the prosecutor's office. In July 2023, the State Duma adopted an amendment replacing the conscript's "authorized representative" with a "legal representative" in the law on filing complaints against decisions of conscription commissions, which made it impossible to file a complaint by power of attorney. Senator Andrei Klishas criticized the amendment and recalled that the right to qualified legal assistance is guaranteed by the Constitution. In December 2023, the law was changed again and the possibility of filing complaints by power of attorney was restored.
On September 28, Vladimir Putin increased the authorized strength of the Russian army for the fourth time this year, to 2,441,630 people, of whom 1,550,500 are service members. Since March, the number of service members in the authorized strength has grown by 47,860.