Mobilization in Russia for Aug. 21-22, 2023 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
The Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] Telegram channel clarified if it was legal for draft offices to conduct medical examinations outside of regular conscription campaigns:
- People, who have been granted a draft deferral or exemption from regular conscription, cannot be required to undergo a medical examination, although they can apply for one voluntarily. The law only mandates a medical examination during the initial military registration and prohibits draft offices to require one otherwise.
- The only exception concerns people, who have been deemed unfit for military duty, that is those in categories V, G or D.
- Reservists cannot be required to undergo a medical examination either, but the law does allow them to volunteer for one if their health deteriorates.
- Medical examinations can only legally take place during regular conscription campaigns, that is from Apr. 1 to July 15 and from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31.
- Outside of these regular conscription campaigns, a military registry data check-up remains the only legal reason to require someone to visit a draft office.
A telephone campaign is underway in the Smolensk region, urging its residents to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense, according to one of the subscribers of the Astra Telegram channel. The calls originate from the regional call center of the Ministry of Defense. The center’s hotline operator confirmed that a campaign is underway.
Governor of Bashkortostan [Russia's constituent republic] Radiy Khabirov has stated that there is a significant labor shortage in the republic. Unemployment in Bashkortostan has reached its lowest level since 1991. There are over 50,000 vacancies listed in the republic's job bank. At the same time, the republic is actively recruiting men for the war in Ukraine. Eight national battalions have already been established or are currently being formed in Bashkortostan. Additionally, the Bashkortostan Motorized Rifle Regiment has completed its training and has been deployed to the combat zone.
Yury Yukhnevich, former deputy of the Tyumen regional Duma [regional assembly], has signed a contract and departed to fight in Ukraine. He was stripped of his position in 2021 due to a video titled "Let's Remind Swindlers and Thieves of Their Manifesto-2002." The court fined Yukhnevich for distributing extremist materials, which prevented his re-election. According to information from a local Telegram channel, the former deputy allegedly needed money.
The local newspaper of the town of Sudogda in the Vladimir region reports about two nurses who voluntarily went to war in Ukraine as medical personnel. Meanwhile, there is a severe shortage of medical staff in the Vladimir region. In March 2023, a mobilized neurologist from the Vladimir region was killed in Ukraine.
Mobilized Soldiers and Volunteer Fighters
The list of mobilized soldiers killed in the war has been updated to include Denis Khramovy from the Volgograd region, Namsaray Khokhonoev from Buryatia [Russia's constituent republic], Konstantin Zotov from the Perm region, Vitaly Kuritsyn from the Novosibirsk region, and Timofey Gromov from the Tver region. The death of the commander of the 1232nd Regiment, Colonel Vladimir Kochenkov, has also become known. The regiment is formed from mobilized soldiers from Russia's constituent Republic of Tatarstan.
Three Russian servicemen were killed in a car due to a mine explosion in the village of Pochalovo, Belgorod region, and another 13 people were injured. According to the source of the 7x7 online outlet, Russian soldiers allegedly planted the mine to prevent a possible breakthrough on the border from Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense and regional authorities did not report the incident.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
Since the beginning of the year, the Ufa Garrison Military Court has issued around 30 verdicts against servicemen from Bashkortostan for going AWOL. All of them have been found guilty. The Court of Appeal generally upholds such verdicts, with only two instances of mitigated sentences recorded so far.
The Novosibirsk Garrison Military Court sentenced Private Vasily Ananyev to five years in a penal settlement for leaving his unit during the mobilization period. According to the Court, he was absent from his unit from December to February, after which he voluntarily reported to the draft office.
An attempt to set fire to a draft office took place in Yekaterinburg. Two bottles containing an incendiary mixture were thrown at the building, with one of them bouncing off and catching fire on the pavement. The fire was quickly extinguished, leaving the building undamaged. The arsonist managed to escape and is currently being sought by the police. Meanwhile, Yury Aksyonov, the head of the draft office of the Sverdlovsk region, stated that it was part of a drill.
A man who set fire to the contract military service recruitment tent in Kirov has been charged with "discrediting the Russian Armed Forces." Earlier, he had been issued a protocol for minor hooliganism, but, since he managed to send a video of the fire to several of his friends, the Investigative Committee considered the distribution of this video as "publicly discrediting the RuAF." The man could face up to seven years of imprisonment.
The prosecution has requested a seven-year prison sentence for Oleg Vazhdaev, who on the night of Sept. 25, 2022, fearing conscription, attempted to set fire to the draft office in Krasnodar in order to destroy his personal file. Vazhdaev's attorney stated that the young man was tortured by the police after being detained, forcing him to provide self-incriminating testimony.
Using the example of 83-year-old Rimma Vtorova, who was detained on Aug. 1 when attempting to set fire to a military commissariat [enlistment office] in Volgograd, BBC News Russian tried to find out more information about the wave of military commissariat fires that swept Russia in late July and early August. Among the arsonists are mostly elderly people, but there are also some young people, including college students. They all report to have fallen victims to phone scammers, who usually posed as agents of the Russian intelligence services and threatened people with jail time if they didn't comply with their demands.
Another attempted arson of the railway infrastructure occurred in the Moscow region on the evening of Aug. 21. An unidentified person tried to set fire to the entrance railway signal box on the stretch between Podolsk and Kutuzovskaya stations. The equipment was reportedly not damaged.
In Saint Petersburg, a 25-year-old member of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia was charged with incitement to commit terrorist activities. The young man was arrested holding three pamphlets calling for support of the "Freedom of Russia Legion" and the Russian Volunteer Corps. He is facing up to seven years in prison.
The court in Voronezh has sentenced 38-year-old Vladimir Zaklyazminsky to 12 days of arrest and a fine of 35,000 rubles [$372]. Vladimir, a Ukrainian refugee who arrived in Voronezh from the town of Rubizhne in the Luhansk region, which is currently under Russian occupation, was found guilty of pulling the patches with the letter "Z" and the emblem of the Wagner Group off children at a temporary accommodation center. He was charged with administrative offenses related to petty hooliganism and discrediting the Russian Armed Forces.
In a separate incident, a resident of Cheboksary who was intoxicated while on a bus and declared his love for Ukraine and Ukrainians was detained by the police. They forced him to apologize on camera for his words.
Assistance
Authorities in the Perm region want to exempt participants in the war in Ukraine from paying the transportation tax. If the proposal is adopted, both contract soldiers and mobilized men will be eligible for this benefit.
Children
Presidential Envoy to the Russian Far Eastern Federal District Yury Trutnev has stated that Russia must introduce military training for everyone. T-Invariant media outlet found out that Trutnev's son and daughter lead a pro-war organization at Moscow State University, which fundraises for equipment that is then sent to ultranationalists fighting against Ukraine. At the same time, Trutnev's children conceal their involvement in this movement and continue vacationing in countries deemed "unfriendly."
The Cabinet of Ministers of Tatarstan [Russia's constituent republic] has approved a plan of basic measures to prepare citizens of pre-conscription age for military service in the 2023/2024 academic year. The document focuses on the preparation of schoolchildren for military service, along with efforts to promote military-patriotic education in educational institutions, youth and children's associations.
In the village of Leningradskaya, Krasnodar region, a "charity" event in support of war participants took place on the temple territory. Children from the local kindergarten as well as from Cossack groups of other kindergarteners of the region performed at the event. Proceeds will go towards purchasing portable radios for war participants.
300 cadets of the Voin [Warrior] sports and patriotic center in Tyumen have been taught to fire combat arms. Adolescents aged 14 to 17 were handling tactical tasks, capturing "enemy" vehicles, demonstrating their skills in storming buildings and administering first aid. Meanwhile, a former serviceman, aged 21 and already having lost his arm in the war with Ukraine, was invited to the Orlyonok children's camp to commemorate Russian Flag Day.
Miscellaneous
The Mozhem Obyasnit [We can explain] Telegram channel spoke to people who became subjects of reports to law enforcement, compiling their stories into 10 scenarios for becoming a "lawful" target of informants.
The authorities of Rostov-on-Don have rewritten the regulation on the centralized system of warning citizens about emergencies. Now "military conflicts" have been put in the first place among potential threats.
Longreads
A principal of a Perm school and ten teachers quit because of a pupils' father, who insisted on the children's meetings with "veterans of the special military operation." Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] spoke anonymously with one of the dismissed teachers about her desire to tell children the truth about the war, her struggle with the pro-war father, and how the Federal Security Service's (FSB) officer spied on a visiting teacher from Germany.
The Lyudi Baikala [People of Baikal] independent media outlet has published an article about a mobilized resident of the Irkutsk region, who was in contact with his relatives last time on Feb. 20, 2023. In September 2022, he was mobilized, and by the end of December 2022, he was already at the frontlines. On Feb. 20, he reached his wife by phone and said that he was about to go to another assault. After that, he did not contact the family anymore and nothing is known about his fate.