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Moscow’s Metro Turns Into Draft Trap as Face Recognition Hunts Conscripts

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Roman Kohanets
News Writer
Moscow’s Metro Turns Into Draft Trap as Face Recognition Hunts Conscripts
People walk at Moscow Metro. (Source: Getty Images)

Moscow human rights groups reported that police have begun detaining draft-age men in the capital’s metro using the city’s face-recognition network, with initial cases logged from October 12 and a 19-year-old held after being flagged at Timiryazevskaya station, according to The Insider on October 20. 

The civic group Citizens’ Alliance of Russia (GAR) said the 19-year-old, who had previously appealed his call-up, “was immediately detained through the facial-recognition system” after entering the metro to meet a friend and has spent three days at the Ugreskaya draft collection point, where about 20 others “detained in the same way” were also being held.

“When a conscript appeals the decision and the draft office submits his data into Moscow’s system as an alleged evader, the police facial-recognition system triggers,” GAR wrote. 

Volunteer networks tracking conscription enforcement said detentions were recorded on the transfer between Novokuznetskaya and Tretyakovskaya, and at Kievskaya, Volzhskaya and Barrikadnaya stations.

“We recorded four cases. Where they catch people—in the metro,” the group Idite Lesom (“Get Lost”) wrote in an early roundup of the autumn campaign. “Don’t take risks, don’t use the metro if possible, and leave Moscow for the draft period.” 

Russia’s autumn draft runs from October 1 to December 31, with the Defense Ministry planning to call up about 135,000 men aged 18–30. The use of metro-linked face-recognition in earlier security operations is well documented, and rights lawyers say its deployment for conscription enforcement further blurs lines between policing and military mobilization. 

Earlier, it was reported that Russian authorities raided a Moscow fitness club near the Maryino metro station, forced men to the floor, checked their draft status, and issued summonses, with the network confirming such raids were not limited to one location.

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