Mobilization in Russia for Aug. 13-15, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
Russia’s Minister of Defense Andrey Belousov has announced the creation within the ministry of a Coordination Council to address security concerns in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions. Its mission is to coordinate the supply of weapons to the troops, inter-departmental collaboration, construction of engineering works and evacuation assistance to civilians.
Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov has indicated that a regional-level emergency has been declared in the Belgorod region. He also said he would call on the government to declare a "federal-level" emergency in the region.
Authorities have announced the urgent evacuation of the residents from the village of Glushkovo, the administrative center of the Glushkovsky district of the Kursk region. In total, they have evacuated over 8,000 individuals from the Kursk region to 143 temporary accommodation centers in 11 regions across the country.
BBC News Russian has discovered over 30 job vacancies advertising positions for building fortifications for the "second line of defense" in the Kursk region. The ads recently appeared on Avito, Russia's largest classified advertisements website, and promised salaries between 150,000 and 210,000 rubles [$1,660 to $2,330] per month, with some cases reaching 371,000 rubles [$4,120] for a 60-day period. Kursk regional authorities denied that they were looking for workers to dig trenches. Officials asserted the listings were fake, claiming that fraudsters were using them to collect personal data from Russian citizens. To verify the story, however, the Astra Telegram media outlet called one of the advertisers, a company called Olymp-Stroy. Its representative confirmed that they were indeed hiring, adding that one group of workers had already departed for the Kursk region. Additionally, a representative of the Zgrada Monolit company told the Rotonda media outlet that the request for workers came directly from the administration of the Kursk region. Once the story was reported by the media, Avito began to hide these listings.
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
Authorities in Karachay-Cherkessia [Russia's constituent republic] have increased the sign-up bonus for contracts with the Ministry of Defense from 1.3 million rubles to 1.6 million rubles [$14,400 to $17,700]. The previous increase in the region's bonus occurred in June. Similarly, for the second time since early August, the payment for participating in the war has been raised in Kabardino-Balkaria [Russia's constituent republic]. There, the regional sign-up bonus for contracts with the MoD from Aug. 15 to Dec. 31, 2024, has risen from 1.1 million rubles to 1.5 million rubles [$12,200 to $16,600].
The news outlet 66.ru, citing its source, reported that Aleksey Stasenok, the mayor of Sredneuralsk in the Sverdlovsk region, has instructed each city hall employee to convince at least three people to report to the draft office and sign a contract with the MoD. According to the source, this is the mayor's personal initiative. In an interview with journalists, Stasenok stated that officials are simply inviting reservists to come to the draft office to update their military service register data.
In the Kurgan region, authorities are sending out notices en masse to check up military service register data, according to the region's military commissar. He warns that those who fail to respond to the notices may face fines.
In Ryazan, migrants are being compelled to sign notifications informing them of the option to contract with the MoD. The regional migration center is refusing to accept any documents from migrants without this signature. The notification lists the "benefits" of military service, such as simplified Russian citizenship process, high pay, free medical care, provided housing, leave and family assistance.
Another raid on migrants was carried out by law enforcement officers in Samara. As a result, 15 men who had obtained Russian citizenship but had not completed military registration were sent to a draft office.
Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers
The list of mobilized soldiers killed in the war has been updated to include Mikhail Ganus and Andrey Yerin from the Rostov region, Nikita Reshetnikov, Artyom Prokopchuk and Nikolay Pichugin from Russia’s constituent Republic of Tatarstan, as well as Nikolay Kozlovsky from the Altai region [Russia’s federal subject].
In addition, Artyom Dobrodumsky, a 22-year-old conscript from the Rostov region, has been reported killed in the Kursk region.
The list of conscripts who have gone missing during the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region has been supplemented with Kirill Filip and Vladimir Sirotkin from Tyumen, Daniil Rubtsov from the Vologda region and Vladislav Appel. All of them were transferred from their units to the Russia-Ukraine border and have been unreachable since approximately Aug. 5 or 6.
The mother of a conscript from Russia's constituent Republic of Komi, Ivan Plesovsky, who was serving in the 488th Motorized Rifle Regiment and, as she claims, was captured by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region, has appealed to the Russian authorities to withdraw conscripts from the combat zone.
Over the last 24 hours, several news outlets have been collecting information on conscripts who have gone missing in the Kursk region. Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet] reported that 22 conscripts assigned to the 488th Regiment are missing. The journalists also found posts looking for 12 more service members whose status they could not determine. Earlier, seven additional conscripts who appeared in a video taken in the Ukrainian captivity were identified. Novaya Gazeta Europe [European edition of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta] later identified another conscript from the 488th Regiment. Therefore, at least 29 conscripts have been confirmed taken prisoner or missing in action in the Kursk region. In addition, Astra journalists counted over 60 posts searching for conscripts unaccounted for in the Kursk region and identified 42 of them, all serving in the 488th Regiment. Vazhnyye Istorii identified 25 conscripts captured by the Ukrainians. Parents of several of the PoWs have posted on social media, hoping to find information about their loved ones. The mother of one of the soldiers learned that her son had been captured from media reports. Videos published so far show faces of at least 42 people presented by the Ukrainians as conscripts; however, not all of the men have been identified. In total, Vazhnyye Istorii found over 50 posts searching for servicemen missing from the Kursk region.
According to The Financial Times, Ukraine and Russia have started negotiating the exchange of prisoners captured in the Kursk region. According to the Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets, this is the first time when the Russian side initiated the talks. The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine has confirmed that it is working on the next prisoner exchange.
Vazhnyye Istorii anonymously spoke with an employee of a human rights organization about how relatives of missing conscripts are searching for them. According to the employee, these inquiries have comprised about 80% of all missing persons queries for over a week. A large number of inquiries have also come from conscripts who were caught in attacks and active fighting in the border areas but were able to escape or were withdrawn by their commanders. They are being forced to either sign contracts or some kind of "agreements" under threats of prosecution for desertion. Additionally, soldiers from other regions of Russia are being prepared for deployment to the Kursk region, including some who were drafted this year and have not yet received military specialties. A soldier’s mother from the Samara region and a representative of the anti-war project Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] shared similar concerns with the independent media outlet Agentstvo [Agency]. Since the beginning of the AFU offensive in the Kursk region, the project has received 25 new requests from relatives of conscript soldiers regarding the transfer of their loved ones to the combat zone, with reports coming from an increasing number of regions. Astra has also collected several similar stories.
According to Astra, conscripts from the 80th Motorized Rifle Brigade are being deployed near Kursk. Parents of servicemen have shared this information on social media, and it was also reported earlier by the Ostorozhno, Novosti [Beware the News] Telegram channel. New "Kursk battalions" are being formed from conscripts who have just begun their service. The Idite Lesom! project also continues to receive reports of conscripts from an engineering-sapper unit in Ishim and military units in Naro-Fominsk, as well as from the Kaliningrad, Sverdlovsk, Leningrad, Murmansk and Samara regions, being sent to Kursk.
The Idel.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet has released a report on what is happening to conscripts from the Volga region in connection with the AFU breakthrough in the Kursk region.
Astra has obtained a video showing the dispatch of several hundred refuseniks from a unit in Kamenka, Leningrad region, to Kursk. Among them are men with serious health issues and those who are willing to go to prison rather than go to war. According to a source, about 10 people flatly refused to board the buses. They are now being held in a separate room and threatened with being sent to a pre-trial detention center. The fact of their dispatch had been reported earlier. After being transferred to the Kursk region, two dozen refuseniks managed to escape from the training ground, Astra reports. At the same time, hundreds of other refuseniks who were transported with them have been given weapons and are likely preparing to be sent into combat. Relatives of the servicemen reported that their loved ones are officially listed as being in the Kamenka unit, which deprives them of the right to death gratuity payments in the event of their death. A lawyer from the Prizyv k Sovesti [Call to Conscience] coalition, who also independently confirmed Astra's information, explains why this practice is illegal and how to resist it.
Georgy Zhukov, a soldier mobilized by the "DPR" authorities, was captured by Ukrainian forces in November 2022 but was exchanged in February 2023 and sent to a hospital. After being discharged, he was detained for going AWOL and sent back to the frontline. Since then, Zhukov has been fighting in forward positions without leave and has not received any payments.
Hayk Arutyunyan, a citizen of Armenia and Russia who asked Margarita Simonyan [Russian propagandist, editor-in-chief of the RT international news television network] for help, has ended up in Ukrainian captivity.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
On Aug. 11, in the Belgorod region, a mother and daughter were killed in a traffic accident involving military personnel. Another traffic accident in the Belgorod region occurred on Aug. 14. According to the photos, a military truck once again crashed into a passenger car. No details about the casualties are available at this time.
Dmitry Matveyev, the murderer of the deputy chairman of the Call of the People movement, will be deployed to the war. His criminal case is planned to be suspended.
In Ufa, a 42-year-old man named Vitaly, who fatally stabbed his ex-wife in front of their son, is preparing to go to the frontline.
In Saint Petersburg, Murat Ganizhev, a suspect in the brutal murder of a young woman, has requested to become a volunteer fighter on the frontline.
Sergey Trifanov, accused of murder and the former head of the Satka branch of the Molodaya Gvardiya [the Young Guard, the youth wing of the United Russia party], has been deployed to the war instead of facing trial.
The military police are searching for 50-year-old Yury Metelitsa, a murderer of three people who escaped from the frontline. He was recruited to the war from a penal colony, where he was serving a sentence for a contract murder that occurred in 2002.
In Yekaterinburg, a previously convicted participant in the war attacked his ex-girlfriend. The 30-year-old man burst into a beauty salon, and witnesses heard gunshots. The victim suffered wounds to her arm and leg and was sent to a hospital. Before being deployed to the war in 2022, he had been convicted five times.
The Central District Military Court has upheld the sentence of five and a half years imprisonment for Gazim Timerov, a serviceman from Bashkortostan, who was charged with going AWOL.
The Military Court of Cassation has released contract soldier Andrey K., who was sentenced to two and a half years in a penal colony for refusing to obey an order. His case has been sent back to the court of first instance for retrial.
The Irkutsk Garrison Military Court has ruled that conscript Dmitry M., who was injured on the Belgorod region border, is entitled to compensation of 3 million rubles [$33,200] under Putin’s decree. Previously, the command had denied Dmitry the payment, citing that the Belgorod region was not within the "special military operation" zone. The court has now recognized that the conscript was performing the same tasks as contract soldiers in a combat zone.
In Novocherkassk, the court has found mobilized soldier Nikolay Yeliseyev guilty of bribery for obtaining a certificate for an injury received during combat operations in Ukraine and sentenced him to a fine of 1.1 million rubles [$12,200].
Since the start of the full-scale war with Ukraine, Russian police have initiated 10,000 misdemeanor charges for "discrediting the Armed Forces," according to reports from Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet]. The first 1,000 charges were initiated in less than a month. By the end of 2022, the number had risen to 5,614, and by the end of 2023, it reached 8,590. The 10,000th case was submitted to court in the first week of August 2024. As of the end of 2023, the total fines imposed under this article amounted to 227.8 million rubles [$2.52 million]. A second such "violation" could lead to a criminal case for repeated discrediting with dangerous consequences.
Between the beginning of 2022 and the end of July 2024, at least 214 misdemeanor charges related to the activities of "undesirable" organizations were submitted to courts in Russia. In 2022 and 2023, there were 58 and 55 such cases, respectively. The most common punishment for these cases was a fine, with 138 instances resulting in fines of 5,000 rubles [$55].
A court in Omsk has sentenced local resident Anton Smolyaninov to 15 years in a maximum-security penal colony on charges of committing an act of terror. He allegedly set fire to vehicles marked with the letter "Z" in November 2022.
A court in the Kaluga region has sentenced 70-year-old schoolteacher Oleg Elmanov to two and a half years on probation for attempting to set fire to a draft office using a Molotov cocktail. The building was not damaged, and the fire was quickly extinguished. Elmanov was charged with attempted destruction of someone else's property.
In Magadan, two men accused of failing to report an arson attempt on a military commissariat have been sentenced. One has received six months on probation, while the punishment for the other remains unknown.
In Moscow, 16-year-old student Anton Yablunovsky from the Moscow State Automobile and Road Technical University has been detained on charges of attempting to set fire to relay cabinets in the Odintsovo urban district of the Moscow region. A criminal case on charges of an act of terror has been initiated against him.
According to the SHOT Telegram channel, a 33-year-old electrician Yevgeny has been detained in Moscow on charges of setting a Rosgvardia [the Russian National Guard] vehicle on fire. It is claimed that "Ukrainian handlers" allegedly promised him 500,000 rubles [$5,540] for the arson.
A Russian Railways [Russian fully state-owned railway company] locomotive caught fire at the Perovo station in Moscow. Preliminary reports suggest the cause of the fire was arson; no one was injured.
In the Altai region, a 20-year-old man has been detained on suspicion of treason. According to law enforcement officers, he sent donations to a "Ukrainian formation recognized as terrorist in Russia." On the same charge, the Federal Security Service (FSB) detained a female "DPR citizen," who allegedly passed information about the Ministry of Emergency Situations' efforts to address the consequences of fighting in the region to Ukrainian intelligence services.
The Second Eastern District Military Court has sentenced Warrant Officer Viktor Pokusin to seven years in a penal colony for "confidential" cooperation with foreigners.
In Yekaterinburg, Ksenia Karelina, a dual Russian and US citizen, has been sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony for treason for donating $51 to the Razom for Ukraine fund, which she contributed on the third day of the full-scale war. The fund's website states that the money collected is used for humanitarian needs, particularly to support children.
The Khamovniki Court in Moscow has found journalist Anna Sliva, who covered a rally of mobilized soldiers' wives, guilty of participation in an unauthorized event. She was fined 20,000 rubles [$220].