Russia Begins Restricting Reservists From Traveling Abroad

Russia has reported the first known case of a reservist being barred from leaving the country after a military enlistment office made the decision.

The rights group Idite Lesom reported the case.

The reservist is a 24-year-old man from Russia’s Rostov region who completed his mandatory military service in 2024 and was then placed in the reserve.

On September 2, he tried to fly out of Krasnodar but was pulled aside for additional screening at passport control.

He was questioned for about an hour before officials denied him permission to leave the country and handed him an official notice informing him that his right to leave Russia had been temporarily restricted.

In November 2025, the reservist personally reported to the military enlistment office after receiving a summons to update his registration details. There, officials inserted a mobilization order into his military ID.

However, the same summons later appeared in the electronic registry with the status “citizen failed to appear.” According to human rights activists, the enlistment office decided to temporarily bar the man from leaving the country after that.

The travel restriction did not appear in the registry before his trip, so the reservist only learned of it when he reached the border. After being denied permission to leave Russia, he filed a complaint through the “Gosuslugi” government services portal. He is also trying to obtain an official extract from the registry showing the decision number imposing the restriction.

Previously, Idite Lesom reported on another reservist who was banned from leaving Russia after an electronic summons appeared in the registry. In that case, however, the military enlistment office said it had never issued the summons and described the travel ban as a system error.

At least 23 Russian conscripts faced the same problem in late August.

The cases come amid a gradual tightening of Russia’s mobilization measures. Human rights groups say men are being detained on the streets and pressured into signing contracts with the Defense Ministry.

At the end of August, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that Russia could mobilize around 300,000 people after the September elections to the State Duma, focusing mainly on the regions rather than major cities.