Senators voted against keeping the minimum draft age at 18

Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense, Viktor Bondarev, and Andrei Klishas, ​​head of the upper house of the parliament, Committee on State Construction and Constitutional Legislation, objected to maintaining the minimum age limit for military service at 18. Both senators are pushing for a proposal to extend it to 21 years, as originally proposed by the Department of Defense.

“The lower limit of the military age should be 21, the upper limit 30. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure the right to enter military service from the age of 18 of one’s own free will – at the written request of the citizen himself to the military registration and recruitment office, ”Viktor Bondarev said on his Telegram channel.

According to him, citizens should be allowed to take up military service from the age of 18, but only in exceptional cases. This approach will take into account the wishes of young people who wish to serve in the military on a voluntary basis.

Klishas also supported Viktor Bondarev’s proposal. “I fully agree with my fellow senator, Hero of Russia Viktor Bondarev. The general rule is 21, and 30 is the age of conscription,” Kliszas wrote on his Telegram channel.

At the end of 2022, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu proposed raising the lower age limit for conscription from 18 to 21, and the upper limit from 27 to 30. The bill was adopted by the deputies of the State Duma in the first reading. However, on July 21, the State Duma proposed a different solution – the conscription of citizens aged 18 to 30, thus maintaining the lower limit of the conscript age of 18 years.