Russian fathers of many children will not be subject to deferment from mobilization

The State Duma (The Russian Parliament) rejected the draft law on deferment from mobilization for fathers who have three or more children.

The bill was submitted to the lower house of parliament a week after the start of partial mobilization in Russia in September 2022 and was ultimately rejected on July 30, 2024. One of the deputies explained the decision by the fact that "national security and defense capability of the state should be a priority."

At the same time, the Ministry of Defense issued a directive in the fall of 2022, according to which fathers of many children with children under 16 were subject for a deferment. The Duma then  confirmed that the directive was in effect.

The document was submitted to the State Duma on September 28, 2022, with six deputies listed as its authors. They proposed exempting fathers of three or more children from partial mobilization and raising the age of children at which a deferment would be granted to their fathers from 16 to 18 years.

The State Duma started working in the bill only in 2024. In May, the State Duma Defense Committee recommended rejecting it. Committee members said that they “could not agree with the method of protecting large families proposed by the authors.” The committee referred to the article of the Constitution, which stated that “defending the Fatherland is the duty and obligation of a citizen of the Russian Federation.” They also said that mobilization was a special legal regime and “expanding the list of deferments would negatively affect the staffing of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.”

According to current legislation, a deferment from mobilization is granted to citizens who have four or more dependent children under the age of 16, to single fathers raising children under the age of 16, and to a number of other categories of citizens.

The consideration of the bill was postponed several times before it was finally rejected at a meeting held on July 30. Despite the fact that 90 deputies supported the bill, the majority spoke out against it.

Russian man is warrior and breadwinner

One of the authors of the bill, Nina Ostanina, asked during the discussion why 256,000 IT specialists and 170,000 banking sector employees (according to her data) received a deferment, but fathers of many children did not. At the same time, she cited statistics according to which 903 fathers of many children and 100 fathers of disabled children serve in the zone of the special military operation. The MP also recalled that the president, his press secretary and the Ministry of Defense had repeatedly stated that there was no need for another wave of mobilization in Russia.

"Tell us what to answer to numerous letters in which women ask to have their husbands back home because their third or fourth child was born?" Nina Ostanina said. 

First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee Andrei Krasov responded by saying that issues of national security and the defense capability of the state were a priority.

"What does [the word] "muzhchina" ('muzhchina' is a Russian word for 'man') stand for? It means 'muzh' ('husband') and 'chin' ('rank'). 'Muzh' is a warrior, a defender of the family, of our society and our state, and subsequently "chin" is a worker, a breadwinner. So, every man must defend his state, and then take care of the bread for his family," the deputy noted.

Ostanina added that she now plans to prepare a new version of the bill and submit it again for consideration at the autumn session.

In October 2022, during partial mobilization, it was reported that fathers with three or more children under 16 years of age would receive a deferment from partial mobilization. The head of the State Duma Defense Committee Andrei Kartapolov confirmed the adoption of such a decision. He said that the decision had been communicated to the military commissariats. However, Nina Ostanina claimed that the deferment from mobilization for fathers of three children had been canceled.

The State Duma also adopted a law to deprive acquired Russian citizenship for failure to register for military service.