score:1
TL;DR - You can renew the passport whenever you like.
In 2011 I held a 5-year passport that was due to expire in -- IIRC -- 2013. I was still enrolled at university at the time, which made me temporarily exempt from military service.
Since males of the appropriate age need approval (a specific form) from the military commissariat for an international passport, and as I had a PhD position lined up abroad, I figured it would be easier to renew my passport while I was still exempt from military service, rather than having to face the hassle of doing this in the middle of my PhD program, no longer having the relevant exemption.
To answer the question, I had zero problems getting a new passport, valid for 10 years, while there was still 2 years left on my old one. The lady at the issuing office was a bit surprised, but I simply told her, that I've got a position abroad and would like to avoid the inconvenience of renewing a passport from abroad.
Upvote:1
In addition to VMAtm's answer, for practical purposes, also consider the field on the passport application where you have to select whether it's your first passport, or whether you're getting it in exchange of a used/damaged/lost one.
9 Получение паспорта
- Первичное
- Взамен использованного
- Взамен испорченного
- Взамен утраченного
When picking up the new passport, if the old passport is otherwise valid, it'll be taken momentarily to have holes punched through it, and returned back to you.
Upvote:5
This is only a recommendation from the consulates, as the time deadlines for a new passport creation are up to 3 months, so if you want to get a new passport when your old one is about to expire in 2 months, you could get into to situation when you have no valid passport.
The only restriction is that you can't get a new passport without invalidation the old one (Federal Law # 114 in Russian), with only one exclusion: if you regulary go out of the country (you have stamps in your passport for 3 consecutive months), you can create another one, but the expiry date for such passport will be equal to expiry date of the first one.
Update:
About the three consecutive months rule:
Quote from law:
В случае, если деятельность гражданина Российской Федерации связана с регулярными (не реже чем один раз в течение месяца) выездами за пределы территории Российской Федерации, а данный гражданин не имеет права на получение дипломатического или служебного паспорта, ему по ходатайству организации, направляющей его за пределы территории Российской Федерации, может быть оформлен и выдан второй паспорт, при этом во втором паспорте днем окончания срока действия паспорта указывается день окончания срока действия ранее выданного паспорта.
So you need three points to get the second one passport without invalidating the first one:
There are a lot of sites with detailed explanation, like this:
http://www.yfms-passport.ru/two_international_passport
Note: if you are saying that you lost your passport, it will be invalidated, and even if you find it later, it can't be validated back.