Russia: draft-age men may be refused a foreign passport without a military ID

This piece has two parts: a sourced news report, followed by the Sardaana News editorial position.

What happened

The absence of a military ID for men of draft age may be grounds for refusing to issue a foreign-travel passport, Banki.ru reports, citing documents of Russia’s Interior Ministry (MVD) reviewed by TASS.

Grounds for refusal

At the document-intake stage for a foreign passport, the MVD listed several grounds for refusal. One is the absence of a military ID for an applicant of draft age. An application may also be refused if the applicant’s internal Russian passport is expired or invalid.

Other reasons include: a photo that does not match the required format; false information or errors in the form; and an application that does not meet the established requirements.

Context

Earlier, the MVD listed grounds for replacing a foreign passport: expiry, a change of personal data, damaged or soiled pages, errors and typos, and no free pages left for visas and stamps.

Sardaana News editorial position

Russia keeps gradually increasing its attempts to stop young people from emigrating to other countries. Requiring a military ID for a foreign passport is another step in that direction: young men are being locked inside the country. At the same time, the state wants these young people to go kill and die in Ukraine for Putin.