The Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President of the Russian Federation (GUSP)—the federal agency for ensuring the mobilization readiness of government bodies—has prepared a bill that would allow authorities to send conscripts to the directorate for statutory military service. Service there is currently permitted only under contract. Under existing laws, conscripts may serve in the Armed Forces, the National Guard Forces, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, state protection agencies, and a number of other national agencies. The bill proposes adding GUSP to that list. The directorate is responsible for the operation of special command posts for the state and the Armed Forces and for the work and security of the president...
Vladimir Putin signed a federal law expanding the categories of convicts eligible to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense during mobilization, martial law or wartime. The State Duma [lower house of Russia's Federal Assembly] had earlier approved it in all three readings in a single day. The measure lifts restrictions for those convicted under a number of articles of Russia's Criminal Code, including articles covering serious crimes (more here). They will serve in special units, separate from regular contract soldiers and under the strict control of commanders. According to a tally by the human rights project Pervy Otdel [Department One], courts convicted just over 850 people under these articles in the first half of 2025. The ban...
Unidentified people in civilian clothes are now involved in roundups of men in the Penza region, the independent media outlet Agentstvo [Agency] reported. They refuse to identify themselves and use vehicles registered to the district administration and to a municipal institution to transport detainees. The outlet cites two cases in the village of Bashmakovo in which unidentified people tried to forcibly take local men away to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense, according to residents. In both cases, relatives managed to free the men and then turned to the police. After these incidents, local residents formed an informal group to obstruct the roundups. Police later summoned some of its members and threatened them with being...
In the first half of 2026, "nearly 200,000 people" signed contracts with the Russian Armed Forces, and more than 16,000 joined volunteer units, Dmitry Medvedev [Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council] said, adding that about 40,000 service members joined the Unmanned Systems Forces. As of the end of April 2026, Medvedev’s figures showed that 127,000 people had signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense, and another 10,000 had signed contracts for service in "volunteer units." According to a recent statement from the MoD, more than 8,000 specialists were trained for the Unmanned Systems Forces in the first six months of 2026. Agentstvo [Agency, an independent media outlet] notes that, compared with the same period in 2025, the...
The authorized strength of the Russian Armed Forces will increase by 27,000 positions as of Aug. 1—from 2,399,130 set in June to 2,426,130—under a decree signed by Vladimir Putin. The number of military personnel will increase by 25,000, from 1,510,000 to 1,535,000. The number of civilian personnel will grow by another 2,000. The document states that the new expansion is linked to the creation of military construction units. This is already the third (1, 2) increase in the size of the Russian army in 2026 and the sixth (1, 2) since the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine. Before the invasion, a 2017 decree set the total authorized strength of the RuAF at 1,902,758, of which 1,013,628 were military personnel. Thus, since 2022...
Aleksey Ionov, the former deputy head of the Dmitrov Urban District in the Moscow region, who is accused of accepting a large-scale bribe, has signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense and deployed to the frontline. Proceedings in his criminal case have been suspended. Ionov was arrested in February of last year. According to investigators, he and another official accepted 4.35 million rubles [$55,600] in exchange for facilitating the award of a contract to install advertising structures.
More convicts will be able to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense during mobilization, martial law, or wartime under a bill that the State Duma [lower house of Russia's Federal Assembly] approved in the first reading and then immediately in the second and third. The measure will lift restrictions for those convicted under a number of articles of Russia's Criminal Code, including those covering serious crimes. Deputy Defense Minister Viktor Goremykin said that those convicted under these articles will serve only in special units, separately from regular contract soldiers and under the strict control of commanders. According to a tally by the Pervy Otdel [Department One] human rights project, in the first half of 2025 courts...
The Pepel [Ashes] Telegram channel reports that the command is forcing fighters of Belgorod’s Orlan unit to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense. Legally, they had not previously been service members and had not signed contracts with the MoD. Instead, they had concluded civilian agreements with an entity created by the Belgorod regional government. They are now being offered a contract with the MoD for service in a volunteer unit. The agreement is with a Russian Aerospace Forces training center, runs for 12 months, and provides for the possibility of transfer to another volunteer unit if operationally necessary.
The government introduced a bill in the State Duma [lower house of Russia's Federal Assembly] to expand the list of convicts who can sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense during mobilization, martial law, or wartime. The bill would lift restrictions for those convicted under several articles of Russia's Criminal Code covering smuggling, participation in a gang or criminal community, illegal interference with the operation of critically important facilities, illegal handling of nuclear materials, organizing illegal migration, and losing documents containing state secrets. The ban on signing a contract would remain for those convicted of terrorism, sabotage, treason, espionage, and sexual crimes against minors. The changes amend...
The Kemerovo city administration has announced a reward of 115,000 rubles [$1,480] for anyone who "assists" recruits in signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense. For active-duty military personnel and law enforcement officers, the reward is 92,000 rubles [$1,180]. Draft office employees and relatives of those signing contracts are ineligible for the reward. The wider Kemerovo region offers a separate reward of 20,000 rubles [$260]. The regional budget has allocated approximately 20 million rubles [$257,400] for this purpose.