Duma Deputy from Sakha Introduces Draft Bill to Exempt Children of the Numerically Small Peoples of the North from Any Russian Draft

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 1 – Fedor Tumusov, who represents the Sakha Republic in the Russian State Duma, has introduced a draft bill that would exempt children of the numerically small peoples of the North from any Russian draft, a measure needed given the risk that the loss of young men from these nations could put their peoples on the path to extinction.

            The Sakha deputy,  first deputy chairman of the Duma committee on health, says that “the number of many of the ethnoses involved is less than a thousand” and that losses of young men thus have outsized demographic consequences (nemoskva.net/2026/05/01/deputat-gosdumy-predlozhil-dat-korennym-narodam-severa-pravo-ne-sluzhit-v-armii/).

            Tumusov’s bill contains two other provisions: On the one hand, it gives young men from these nations a larger list of alternative service to choose from; and on the other, it allows those who may already have been drafted the right to leave service early so as to return to their home areas.

            Such a measure is unlikely to pass given how hard the Kremlin is working to find men to fill the depleted ranks of its invasion force in Ukraine, but it is a sign that representatives of at least some non-Russian groups who have been drafted disproportionately since 2022 are now seeking redress – yet another indication of opposition to Putin’s war among such groups.