Hlib Parfonov
On March 30, Russian riot police and military enlistment officers conducted a raid on a Spirit Fitness club in Moscow to search for people evading military registration. Officers forced those in the club to put their faces to the floor and separated them by ethnicity while checking their passports to verify their military registration. This raid occurred just days before Russia’s spring draft held on April 1 (Telegram/msk1_news, March 30; The Moscow Times, March 31). The Kremlin is directing its efforts toward the full-fledged militarization of society by expanding its military training programs for universities in a way that ensures the long-term competence of its fighting forces (see EDM, November 8, 2023, September 19, 2024). Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has been undergoing “reverse industrialization,” which has led to limited, if any, access to higher education for a substantial portion of the population. The Kremlin is actively limiting access to higher education, instead promoting vocational training, factory work, and, crucially, military service. Those who do access Russian higher education institutions encounter new mobilization and military training programs promoted by the Kremlin (see EDM, March 4).
One key aspect of this strategy is the expansion of military training programs within civilian educational institutions. Russia inherited the concept of military training programs within civilian educational institutions from the Soviet Union’s “military departments,” where university students could undergo military training as a means of avoiding conscription (Armyhelp.ru, September 13, 2023). In 2019, however, the Russian government issued a resolution that consolidated all military departments and faculties into Military Training Centers (Военно-учебный центр, Voenno-uchebnyi tsentr, or VUC) (Government of the Russian Federation, July 3, 2019). According to the resolution, the consolidation would increase the efficiency of higher education institutions in supporting Russia’s defense and security.
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