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Russia Blocks First Citizen From Leaving Country Under New Digital Draft Registry Rules
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![Photo of Vlad Litnarovych]( "Photo of Vlad Litnarovych")
Russia has begun blocking military-aged men from leaving the country following the launch of its new digital draft registry and the rollout of electronic draft notices, according to the monitoring group Pogranichny Kontrol (Border Control) on September 11.
The first such case occurred at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. A 28-year-old man who had previously avoided military service was stopped at passport control after receiving an electronic summons to appear at a draft office for a medical examination.
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Russian conscripts are sent to Russia's Belgorod region. pic.twitter.com/nFYUm6YsaR
He said the government’s online system already displayed a travel ban against his name, but he decided to test whether it would actually work since he had booked an overseas vacation back in May.
“At passport control in Sheremetyevo, they immediately, without a word, called over officers who explained that the ban really does show up in their system. They said there was nothing they could do and that this was the first such case they’d seen under the new system,” the man recounted.
Border officials told him the ban could only be lifted by his local draft office in person.
The electronic draft registry went live this summer, when draft offices began mass enrollment of eligible men. Military-aged citizens were urged to log in, verify their details, and download their records. Lawyers and rights groups warned at the time that the campaign was aimed at filling the database ahead of the autumn draft cycle.
In August, the first digital call-ups were issued through the state services portal Gosuslugi and by text message. Along with dates for military office visits, the notices warned of automatic restrictions for draft dodgers, including bans on leaving Russia, registering a business, obtaining a passport, taking out loans, or selling property. Fines of up to 30,000 rubles (about $320) can also be imposed.
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The creation of a centralized digital registry was ordered by Vladimir Putin after his September 2022 mobilization decree, which triggered a mass exodus estimated at between 700,000 and one million Russians. In April 2023, Putin signed a law making electronic summonses legally equivalent to paper ones, formally tying them to a range of travel and civil restrictions.
In late August 2025, the government further extended the validity of draft notices to one year, effectively allowing men to be called up across two consecutive draft cycles. Officials claimed the move was meant to ensure more “efficient planning” of mobilization.
Earlier, reports emerged that men in Russian-occupied Mariupol who accepted Russian citizenship were being called up to military enlistment offices.
