The Idite Lesom! [Flee through the Woods/Get Lost You All] Telegram channel reports that police in Moscow continue to round up conscripts, contrary to the claim by military commissar Maksim Loktev that conscription in the city ended two weeks early. The channel shared a recording from a subscriber showing law enforcement officers detaining a young man, allegedly to deliver a draft notice. According to the conscript’s sister, they approached him near his home, forcibly pushed him into a vehicle and took him to the military collection point on Ugreshskaya Street without an ID check. He was released only after he signed a draft notice.
In consecutive second and third readings, the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia] passed a bill introducing a tiered system of stricter punishments for armed rebellion, scaled according to the level of involvement (read more). Lawmakers also passed amendments, which were introduced ahead of the bill’s second reading, that expand the definition of treason. The Criminal Code would gain a new article to classify voluntary participation in the activities of enemy state bodies and organizations that "openly threaten the security of the Russian Federation" as siding with the enemy. Moreover, the State Duma approved amendments that exclude the possibility of parole for individuals sentenced to life imprisonment...
The Russian government has endorsed a bill that introduces penalties for failing to report planned acts of sabotage and their participants. The authors of the bill proposed including sabotage, aiding sabotage, organizing a sabotage community, participating in such a community, and undergoing training for these purposes among the offenses that must be reported to authorities. In the explanatory note accompanying the draft, the authors cite the increasing number of sabotage incidents in Russia since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
The Idite Lesom! [Flee through the Woods/Get Lost You All] Telegram channel reports that Moscow authorities continue to round up young men of conscription age, conducting operations on city streets and, most recently, raiding a concert venue. According to the channel, officials have also begun sending SMS messages threatening criminal prosecution if the men they forced to register for military service fail to report to a military collection point. Idite Lesom! emphasizes that these messages carry no legal weight.
Vladimir Putin has signed a bill into law that allows authorities to conceal information about their operations if martial law is declared. The State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia] passed the bill in late November, followed by the Federation Council [upper house] on Dec. 11. Further details about the new law can be found here.
Maxim Ivanov, a member of the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia], wrote that authorities will now treat dead and wounded servicemen in the Kursk region as participants in the "special military operation." A decree signed by Vladimir Putin on Dec. 9 removes the "territorial criterion" from the "special military operation," enabling the families of servicemen who die while carrying out combat missions to receive not only an insurance payout and a one-time allowance of about 8 million rubles [$76,100], but also an additional payment of 5 million rubles [$47,500]. This mirrors the compensation that families of those killed in the invasion of Ukraine currently receive.
Vladimir Putin has come out in favor of a proposal to require contract soldiers to submit DNA samples. He described the initiative as "important" for establishing paternity and addressing "a range of other issues, including financial and housing matters." Currently, authorities collect DNA samples from soldiers' next of kin to identify their remains. Deputy Minister of Defense Anna Tsivilyova previously reported that relatives had already provided 48,000 such samples.
A decree signed by Vladimir Putin extends differentiated compensation of up to 4 million rubles [$39,800] for combat injuries to members of the Rosgvardia [the Russian National Guard], the Federal Security Service and other law enforcement agencies, as well as to volunteer fighters and personnel deployed to the combat zone.
Yevgeny Zamanov, a resident of Saint Petersburg, applied for a contract with the Ministry of Defense but later changed his mind. Despite this, someone signed the contract on his behalf and has been collecting his salary for the past six months. Zamanov decided to volunteer for the war in May, motivated by his girlfriend’s need for medical treatment funds. He submitted an application but later opted not to finalize the contract. In early December, he received a phone call from the draft board warning him to report voluntarily by Dec. 9 or be considered a deserter. Zamanov discovered that he was officially listed as a service member and that his personal account on the Ministry of Defense’s website showed that his salary payments had been...
The Committee on State Building and Legislation of the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia] proposed adding a new article to the Criminal Code on "Assisting the Enemy in Activities Intentionally Directed against the Security of the Russian Federation." Lawmakers introduced this amendment ahead of the second reading of a bill aimed at toughening penalties for armed rebellion. The measure targets foreign nationals and stateless individuals operating from within Russia who provide financial, logistical, advisory or other forms of aid to the "enemy,” with penalties ranging from 10 to 15 years in prison. The authors of the amendments also expanded the definition of "defecting to the enemy" and proposed extending the...