Putin dismisses talk of another mobilization as ‘nonsense.’ But Russia has spent four years closing the loopholes that helped people avoid the last one.

Russian authorities continue to insist there are no plans for a new, large-scale wave of mobilization this fall. On September 1, Vladimir Putin called the rumors “complete nonsense.” There is also no urgent military need to expand the army by several hundred thousand mobilized troops. Still, the media’s constant churning of the topic is clearly frightening…