Kremlin to allow Russian Defense Ministry to confiscate civilian vehicles for military use
All of Russian citizens’ light vehicles are to be put on the military register, Russian news outlet Izvestia reports. The Defense Ministry has already drafted the corresponding document which introduces amendments to the list of vehicles which can be transferred to the army under martial law. The bill is currently undergoing interdepartmental coordination and anti-corruption examination.
According to the bill, the list of vehicles taken into account by the military commissariats in peacetime will include vehicles of the M1 category in the technical regulation of the Customs Union. It includes all light vehicles used to transport passengers with no more than eight passenger seats.
In peacetime, equipment subject to mobilization will be strictly accounted for. The military commissariat will keep a card on each car indicating its technical condition, whether it can be used as a means of transport without prior maintenance, the details of its last technical inspection, and the presence of an insurance policy.
The mobilization of personal transport vehicles can only begin if martial law is declared in the country, which will only be done in the event of external aggression or the threat of being attacked by a foreign state. The vehicles will be added to the armament of the military units newly formed in wartime, the document states. It is assumed that the mobilized equipment will not be sent to the combat regions.
The draft order does not entail the confiscation of vehicles from owners. The civilian vehicles are only to be used by soldiers until state vehicles arrive from storage. After this, the vehicles will be returned to their owners, and the owners will be paid compensation based on the duration of use and any damage done to the vehicle.
The army is unlikely to need normal cars – in the event of mobilization, preference will be given to the UAZ-469, UAZ-3151, UAZ-2966 and UAZ-3163 Patriot.
If the military unit does not have any state vehicles present, it will have to use other models with similar tactical and technical specifications, military expert Vladislav Shurygin observes. For example, the state should have UAZ-469 vehicles, but if the military warehouses do not have this type, it will be replaced by a military Niva. “And only if there are no Nivas, its place will be taken by a mobilized civilian car,” the expert claims.
Foreign 4x4 SUVs, including luxury vehicles such as the Toyota Prado and VW Touareg, will be mobilized in extreme cases.
The draft order also states that mobile compressors, power stations and power supply units will also be placed on the military register now. These facilities may be needed by the army to organize basic field camps and to power weapon systems.
The Defense Ministry has also proposed tightened control of car record keeping. In addition to regional traffic departments, state vehicle inspection and the State Statistics Service, the military will now also receive information from the tax service on transport owned by legal entities. An explanatory note on the document states that increasing the number of sources of information on vehicles will help to improve the accuracy of the provided information.
A system of mobilizing all transport vehicles, including all cars belonging to domestic companies and all personally owned cars, existed under the Soviet Union.