In Russia, the practice of issuing mobilization orders to reservists has increased sharply in 2026, while human rights advocates have already documented the first known case of a reservist being barred from leaving the country by decision of a military enlistment office. According to lawyers, several hundred thousand Russians may have received orders requiring them to report to an assembly point if mobilization is declared.
This was reported by The Moscow Times.
Timofey Vaskin, head of the legal department at the School of Conscripts, said mobilization orders had been issued in Russia before, but the practice became much more widespread in 2026. Exact figures are classified, but according to him, the number of requests received by lawyers and reports on social media has increased dozens of times.
Search statistics also point to a sharp rise in interest in the issue. According to Yandex Wordstat, searches for “mobilization order” increased from 7,154 in January to 65,048 in August — a rise of more than 800%. This is the highest level since the mobilization campaign in the autumn of 2022.
A mobilization order itself does not mean automatic deployment to the front. However, if a new mobilization decision is made, it would allow the authorities to assemble reservists more quickly.
Against this backdrop, the human rights project Idite Lesom reported the first known case in which a reservist was prevented from leaving Russia by decision of a military enlistment office.
The case concerns a 24-year-old resident of the Rostov region who completed compulsory military service in 2024. On September 2, he tried to fly abroad from Krasnodar, but at passport control he was given a notice temporarily restricting his right to leave Russia.
In November 2025, the man had reported to the military enlistment office to update his records, where a mobilization order was inserted into his military ID. At the same time, the electronic register listed his summons as one for which he had allegedly failed to appear. This became the basis for the travel restriction.
Human rights advocates stress that a single case does not yet indicate a general ban on foreign travel for all reservists.
At the same time, since Russia fully launched its electronic summons registry, more and more conscripts have reported problems crossing the border. Between August 18 and 31 alone, 73 men who tried to leave Russia contacted human rights advocates, and 23 of them were unable to cross the border.
These developments come amid reports that Russia may be preparing new mobilization measures because of heavy military losses and a shortage of new personnel to replace them.
