Moscow authorities are using the capital’s extensive facial recognition camera system to track down young conscripts, state news agency TASS reported today, citing the head of the city’s conscription service.

Last week, President Vladimir Putin signed into law a law that tightens restrictions on those trying to avoid conscription and requires draft documents to be submitted electronically rather than delivered in person to a local military enlistment office or through an employee.

Thousands of men are doing their best to avoid the draft

These measures will make life difficult for thousands of men aged 18-27 who do their best every spring and fall to avoid conscripts trying to force them to complete their 12-month mandatory military service, as well as those who are called to serve in Ukraine under the announced last year of conscription.

“To determine the place of residence of a reservist in the city of Moscow, surveillance systems with cameras are used,” Maxim Loktev, head of the Moscow conscription service, told TASS.

In 2017, the Moscow Information Technology Service reported that more than 3,000 CCTV cameras in the city were connected to a facial recognition system.

Source: APE-MPE, Reuters.