Four years on, Russia's mobilization-era sentencing rule remains vague and rarely applied
Four years after Russia enacted a Criminal Code amendment allowing courts to treat almost any crime committed since September 2022 as having an aggravating 'mobilization' circumstance, the provision remains rarely and inconsistently applied. Legal scholars say the wording is broad enough to cover virtually any case, but most courts simply disregard it.
This week marks four years since Russia's parliament rushed through an amendment to Article 63 of the Criminal Code, adding crimes committed "during mobilization or martial law" to the list of aggravating circumstances that can push sentences toward the maximum. The bill passed its second and third readings within a day, hours before Putin announced "partial" mobilization, and took effect immediately after he signed it on September 24, 2022.
An aggravating circumstance means courts are expected to hand down harsher penalties and it strips defendants of statutory sentencing breaks, such as reduced terms for voluntarily confessing or cooperating with investigators.
Because Russia's mobilization has never formally ended, the provision in theory applies to nearly every crime committed since September 24, 2022. There are only two clear exceptions: offenses where mobilization is already built into the definition of a military-service crime, and cases decided by juries who recommend leniency.
In practice, courts apply the rule inconsistently and, for the most part, rarely. Most rulings do not mention mobilization at all, even when prosecutors or victims raise it explicitly. Still, in a handful of cases — involving fraudulently obtained social benefits, illegal export of helicopter parts, and spreading "fake news" about the army — courts have cited mobilization to justify longer sentences.
Legal researchers who have studied the provision argue its wording is so vague it could theoretically apply to any offense, and some have proposed narrowing it or removing mobilization from the list of aggravating factors entirely, arguing it has no real bearing on how dangerous most crimes are to society. Russia's Supreme Court has so far issued guidance only for offenses against military service, stating in 2023 that such crimes committed during mobilization pose a heightened danger — but it has not clarified how, or whether, the rule should apply more broadly.
