April 27, 2026

A conscript was denied entry to Belarus due to a summons. This is the first such case - DSO

A Russian conscript was denied crossing the Russian-Belarusian border after receiving a summons to the military enlistment office for a medical examination. This is the first publicly known case. This is reported by "Conscious Objectors Movement." Details. According to the project, in early April, a Russian citizen received a summons to the military enlistment office for a medical examination. Simultaneously, a travel ban from Russia appeared in the electronic registry. After the ban was imposed, the man tried to leave for Belarus. The first time he traveled by land transport – he was removed from the bus at the border and verbally informed about the entry ban. Then he decided to cross the border by train. There were no checks there, but at Minsk airport, he was denied boarding a plane twice – first to Tbilisi, then to Yerevan. In all cases, airport employees did not issue any written documents, explaining the situation verbally. What does this indicate. According to human rights activists, this story indicates that Russia and Belarus have begun exchanging data from the electronic military registration and summons registry. DSO advises conscripts to appeal the travel ban. How electronic summons work. In 2023, amendments were adopted that fully transfer military registration to electronic form. The summons registry began to work fully in August 2025. An electronic summons is considered served seven days after its placement in the summons registry. After this, a travel ban from the country is imposed on the conscript. In case of failure to appear at the military enlistment office within 20 days from the date of service of the summons, other restrictive measures are applied to the conscript – driving, registering as an individual entrepreneur, obtaining loans and real estate transactions. Did the restrictions work before. In December last year, "Important Stories" found out that military enlistment offices and the FSB had not yet established data exchange for electronic summons. Because of this, conscripts continued to leave Russia without restrictions. At the same time, human rights activists recorded isolated cases where conscripts included in the electronic summons registry were not allowed to leave the country. In addition, in March, DSO learned that a package of restrictions was imposed for the first time against a Russian conscript for not appearing at the military enlistment office. This included a ban on registering an individual as an individual entrepreneur, a ban on registering as a taxpayer for professional income, suspension of cadastral registration and/or registration of rights to real estate, restriction of the right to drive vehicles, and a ban on vehicle registration. Later, human rights activists reported that Russians were successfully appealing the imposition of restrictive measures due to failure to appear at the military enlistment office.