Facial recognition used in Moscow metro to detain military draft evaders, rights groups say

Russian police have begun using the Moscow metro’s facial recognition technology to catch draft evaders, the civic group Grazhdansky Alyans Rossii (“GAR”; lit. “Civil Alliance of Russia”) reports. The organization said a 19-year-old man who had previously sought its legal assistance was detained after being recognized by the city’s “smart cameras.”

“We had appealed his spring draft order out of court. He recently received a response to his complaint, and we were preparing to challenge the decision in court. Unfortunately, despite our strong advice to avoid the metro given his situation, he decided to meet his girlfriend at the Timiryazevskaya station yesterday, and was immediately detained through the facial recognition system,” GAR said.

According to human rights activists, the young man has been held for three days at a draft assembly point on Ugreskaya Street in southeastern Moscow, where officials are allegedly forcing him to undergo a medical examination. When GAR representatives managed to reach him by phone, he said around 20 other men detained in the same way were also being held there.

“When a conscript files an appeal and the military enlistment office forwards his data to the Moscow system as an alleged draft dodger, the police’s facial recognition software flags him,” GAR explained.

The independent investigative outlet Important Stories reported that several similar detentions had been documented by another rights group, Prizyv K Sovetsi (lit.”Call to Conscience”). Additionally, according to a report by the human rights project Idite Lesom (lit. “Get Lost”), detentions were reported at the transfer points between Novokuznetskaya and Tretyakovskaya stations, as well as at Kievskaya, Volzhskaya, and Barrikadnaya.

Russia’s autumn draft campaign began on Oct. 1. In this cycle, the Defense Ministry plans to conscript 135,000 men for mandatory military service.