Mobilization in Russia for Aug. 2-4, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary

Authorities and Legislation

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 on signing military contracts will remain for those convicted of terrorism, sabotage, treason, espionage and sexual offenses against minors.

Army Recruitment

Bashkortostan [Russia's constituent republic] will form a new unmanned systems battalion, Radiy Khabirov, the governor of Bashkortostan, said. The unit will bear the name of Musa Gareyev, twice Hero of the Soviet Union. Soldiers serving in the battalion will receive all payments available to other contract soldiers. The regional signing bonus for a military contract currently stands at 1 million rubles [$12,500].

Two accomplices in a 2024 murder in Ufa have signed contracts with the MoD and went to the frontline. According to investigators, in December 2024, a 36-year-old woman from the Kurgan region and two of her acquaintances were drinking at her former partner's home. At some point, a quarrel broke out between the guests and the host, after which all three assaulted the man. When the victim failed to regain consciousness, they dismembered his body and disposed of the remains. Authorities found the body parts in January 2025. A court sentenced the woman to 17 years in a maximum security penal colony on a charge of murder with extreme brutality, while her two accomplices avoided prosecution by signing contracts with the MoD.

The Insider [independent Russian investigative media outlet] noted that, over the course of July, three professional publications aimed at accountants, HR specialists and business managers published overviews explaining how to maintain military registration records during mobilization. The articles specify which categories of citizens would be called up first, namely those who have received mobilization orders and reservists. They explain that the mobilization priority system is primarily based on dividing reservists into three categories, with younger people and those who have served more recently being given higher priority. The publications also note that, since the spring, penalties for employers who violate military registration requirements have been tightened.

The nationwide real estate agency Etazhi has announced that it will require property buyers and sellers aged 18 to 65 to provide an extract from the Draft Register when the company assists with real estate transactions. According to company representatives, the document is required because, under Russian law, draft offices may impose restrictions on individuals who fail to report within 20 days of receiving an electronic draft notice. In such cases, Rosreestr [Russia's federal real estate registry] may suspend cadastral registration and the registration of property rights. These restrictions can only be lifted by appearing at a draft office. Legal experts note, however, that Russian law does not require buyers or sellers to provide an extract from the Draft Register when purchasing or selling real estate. Because a real estate agency is a private commercial organization rather than a government body, the requirement reflects the company's effort to reduce legal and financial risks, not a statutory obligation. In other words, it is an internal due diligence policy rather than a new legal requirement for citizens.

Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts

The Lyudi Baikala [People of Baikal] independent media outlet analyzed search trends related to soldiers reported missing in the war. According to Yandex search statistics, Russians showed little interest in information about missing servicemen until the summer of 2023. However, searches for "missing special military operation" then began to rise rapidly, reaching a stable level of more than 100,000 searches per month by early 2025. The trend has remained at roughly the same level ever since, with 116,000 searches in June 2026. Residents of Siberia and the Russian Far East search for information about those missing in action approximately 1.5 times more often than the national average. Meanwhile, interest in the topic in Moscow and the Moscow region is roughly half the national average.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

In Russian-occupied Sevastopol, a Russian serviceman opened fire, killing four people. He first shot at fellow servicemen, killing one and wounding another. He then went to the village of Khmelnytske, where he killed three civilians: two men, aged 71 and 59, and a 64-year-old woman. Three other people were also wounded. The gunman was detained. The independent outlet Agentstvo identified the suspect as 21-year-old Maksim Alistratov, a native of Saratov. In February 2022, he was still a 10th-grade student, and as of December 2025, he was unemployed.

The Ulan-Ude Garrison Military Court sentenced contract soldier Arsalan Erdyneyev to seven and a half years in a penal colony on charges of going AWOL. According to investigators, on July 24, 2023, while being transferred from one military unit to another, he failed to report to his new duty station. Two and a half years later, on Feb. 4, 2026, he voluntarily turned himself in at a military unit in Ulan-Ude, where he was detained.

In Russian-occupied Crimea, authorities detained a resident of Krasnoperekopsk and a native of the Kherson region, born in 1993, on suspicion of treason. According to law enforcement, the man had previously been recruited through Telegram by an officer of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Investigators allege that, acting on the SBU's instructions, he collected information on the movements of military vehicles, the locations of Russian servicemen and the locations of critical infrastructure facilities. Law enforcement also alleges that he used a 3D printer to manufacture components for UAVs. During a search of his home, officers reportedly found 22 drones that he had assembled.

The Belgorod District Court has sentenced Aleksey Marushchenko, the founder of the Yastreb private military company, to 18 years in a penal colony in a case involving violation of the inviolability of the home, fraud, extortion, illegal weapons trafficking and kidnapping, as well as abuse of authority involving the use of torture and organizing a murder. The case against Marushchenko was opened in February 2025. Initially, only his involvement in a murder, the theft of weapons and fraud was reported. According to investigators, the defendants misled 95 people who came to enlist under a contract through draft offices, promising that they would in fact serve not in units of the MoD but in the Yastreb PMC under better conditions. Money collected from the recruits, ostensibly to help process their paperwork, buy equipment and assist the families of wounded and killed servicemen, was instead transferred to the defendants' accounts and misappropriated. The extortion charge concerns a serviceman who was driven into a forest at gunpoint and held for three days in handcuffs, chained to a tree. Marushchenko also ordered his subordinates to kill Private Rashid Adzhiyev "to maintain the authority" of the command, because Adzhiyev had treated the founder of Yastreb with disrespect and refused to obey his orders. Adzhiyev was driven into a forest and shot dead. Four other servicemen victimized by Marushchenko were beaten by fellow soldiers in a forest over four days until they acknowledged him as their commander. War correspondent Semyonov was abducted and taken from Saint Petersburg to the Belgorod region, where he was placed in a coffin for 12 days and buried upright in the ground. His wife was pressed for 1 million rubles [$12,500] under threats that he would be killed. The founder of the Yastreb PMC was also accused of stealing pistols, assault rifles, grenade launchers and ammunition from a military unit. He was helped in selling the weapons by Lieutenant colonel Igor Dushkin, an Interior Ministry officer in the Kursk region. In his testimony, Marushchenko also described an alleged bribe paid to General Aleksandr Dembitsky, who was arrested in early June and sent to a pre-trial detention center. Also, as part of the Yastreb case, Aleksandr Bazhimov, the former military commissar of Saint Petersburg's Vyborgsky district, was detained on charges of accepting an especially large bribe. It also emerged that Ivan Kozlenkov, a military medic who testified in the case of the murder of his fellow soldier Dmitry Poloumov in the Yastreb PMC, was sent into an assault mission. That episode, however, was ultimately not included among the charges against Marushchenko.

In Russian-annexed Sevastopol, two men born in 1992 and 1999 have been arrested on charges of treason, preparation for a terrorist attack, training in terrorist activity, participation in a terrorist community and illegal possession of explosives. Investigators claim that the men were recruited via Telegram by the Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), after which they gathered intelligence on Russian military units in Russian-annexed Crimea. Investigators further allege that the men underwent training in handling improvised explosive devices before being tasked with carrying out attacks on critical infrastructure facilities and assassinating one of the Russian-appointed leaders of the occupied Ukrainian territories during an expected visit to the peninsula. The detainees also allegedly planned to join a "Ukrainian terrorist organization." During searches, officers reportedly seized three FPV drones equipped with explosive payloads and an improvised explosive device.

On July 30, Russia's Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) added Viktor Kalinin, a 14-year-old resident of Saint Petersburg, to its list of "extremists and terrorists." Kalinin was born in late April 2012, and is currently the youngest person on the registry. According to investigators, in early July, acting on instructions from an unidentified person, he set fire to a relay cabinet on the railway section between the Melnichny Ruchey and Rzhevka stations. A case for a terrorist attack was opened against the teenager, and the court imposed a preventive measure in the form of a ban on certain actions.

A 17-year-old from the Omsk region has been sentenced to six years in a juvenile correctional facility on charges of carrying out a terrorist attack. According to the Investigative Committee, in February 2025, the teenager posted an advertisement looking for work on a social media platform, after which an unidentified individual contacted him offering paid assignments. Acting on instructions from a foreign handler, the youth spray-painted a "discrediting inscription" on a fence in the village of Poltavka, for which he received 1,200 rubles [$15]. In March, he was given a new assignment—setting fire to a local precinct police officer's car. He carried out the arson while filming it and was allegedly paid 92,000 rubles [$1,150]. He was detained shortly afterward and placed in pre-trial detention.

The Central Military District Court has sentenced an 18-year-old resident of Perm to eight years in a penal colony on charges of preparing a terrorist attack, undergoing training to carry out terrorist activities and participating in a terrorist community. According to investigators, while still a minor, he joined a "Ukrainian terrorist organization" online, underwent training and planned to set fire to a transformer substation in the Perm district in April 2024. He was apprehended before carrying out the attack.

A court announcement revealed that 23-year-old Kursk native Daniil Pavlov—who was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of high treason, participation in a terrorist organization and money laundering—was accused of ties to the Freedom of Russia Legion.

The Russian-installed "Supreme Court of Crimea" sentenced a 45-year-old resident of Feodosia to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of high treason. According to law enforcement officials, in September 2024, the man independently collected information about the movements of a reconnaissance-strike helicopter, photographed it, and sent the images and accompanying information to a chatbot allegedly operated by the SBU. The FSB reported his detention in March.

Children and Militarization

More than 4,300 people were admitted to 18 of Russia's top universities under quotas for veterans of Russia’s war in Ukraine and their children in 2026. This is nearly 50 percent more than last year. This year, participants in "special military operation" and their children for the first time filled more than the allocated 10 percent of state-funded places in certain programs by taking places that would previously have been reassigned from other unfilled preferential quotas to the general admissions pool. As a result, these places instead went to applicants under the military quota. Of those admitted under the quota, 39 percent were enrolled without taking the Unified State Exam [Russia's nationwide secondary school graduation examination], while among those admitted based on exam results, nearly two-thirds (61 percent) would not have been accepted without the quota because their scores fell below last year's regular admission thresholds.

Longreads

The Insider has studied the case files of the men accused of involvement in the explosion on the Crimean Bridge and interviewed those who were convicted.

Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] has reported on how FSB officers fabricate high treason cases by posing as Ukrainians.