Classified clause of Putin’s mobilization decree allows Russia to draft up to a million people
The classified seventh paragraph of the decree of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, contains information on the mobilization volume. According to this paragraph, up to one million Russians can be drafted into the Russian army, reported the newspaper Novaya Gazeta.Europe, citing sources in the Kremlin.
According to Novaya Gazeta.Europe, the Russian leadership at first wanted to classify the entire text of the decree. But later the Kremlin decided to put under the "for internal use" category only a clause on the number of mobilized.
The interlocutor of the newspaper said that "the number was corrected several times, and in the end, they stopped at a million."
Journalists tried to clarify this information and contacted the executive authorities that were supposed to have access to this data. However, the officials in several Russian ministries claim that they have no access to the full text of the document. The seventh paragraph of Putin's decree also cannot be accessed through the Russian interdepartmental document management system (MEDO).
The category "for internal use" is “the highest level of classified documents, according to the Russian legislation."
Disclosure of such information, in contrast to "secret" and "top secret" documents, entails disciplinary or administrative responsibility.
Earlier, the Russian presidential spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, denied the reports that the Kremlin wants to draft about a million people.
On September 21, Putin announced a partial military mobilization in the Russian Federation.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that during the partial mobilization it is planned to call up 300,000 reservists.