Mobilization in Russia for Aug. 22-23, 2023 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
The Omsk Civil Association informs that residents of Omsk continue to receive draft notices "for an update on military registration data." In the Zabaykalsky region, draft notices are sent with a requirement to appear at the military commissariat [enlistment office] for a mobilization order. The regional military commissariat stated that this is a "routine procedure for clarifying personal data about an individual." In the first instance, officers are required to receive the mobilization orders. We previously reported on the distribution of draft notices in various regions of Russia.
The Rostov region received an efficiency award from the Russian Ministry of Defense for the best preparation and conduct of the draft. Additionally, the region took first place in the 2022 competition for mobilization training.
The Bar Association in Voronezh has obligated lawyers to inform their clients that they can clear their criminal record upon receiving an award for participation in the war or after discharge from service, provided they sign a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense. For those who are interested, it is worth reminding that they should remember to grant power of attorney to their close relatives before being sent to the frontline.
The Agentstvo.Novosti [Agency News] Telegram channel has found out that the authorities of the Yaroslavl region are the first in Russia to prepare for integrating conscripts’ electronic medical cards into the military registration database. The region's Department of Healthcare and Pharmacy has initiated a search for a contractor who will provide draft offices with access to data from the Unified State Information System in Healthcare, where electronic medical records of Russians are stored. The Yaroslavl authorities will pay 1.8 million rubles [$18,900] for this work, which needs to be completed by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the Governor's Office of the Krasnoyarsk region has commissioned document folders for use during "wartime" and for the organization of territorial defense. The authorities have announced a competition for the production of folders and boxes with special embossing, featuring phrases like "Territorial Defense HQ of the Krasnoyarsk region," "Plan for transitioning the Governor's Office and Government of the Krasnoyarsk region to work under wartime conditions," and others.
Mobilized Soldiers and Volunteer Fighters
The list of mobilized soldiers killed in the war has been updated to include Konstantin Menshchikov from the Perm region and Rail Sunarsin from the Chelyabinsk region.
In the city of Surgut, Khanty-Mansi autonomous region–Yugra [Russia's federal subject], the Ritual municipal establishment has engaged in a contract worth 10 million rubles [$105,710] for the burial of those who lack close relatives or remain unidentified. Judging by the contract value, authorities plan to bury up to 1,200 individuals within a single year, which is an abnormally high figure considering the city's population of 400,000 people. This may suggest military losses. Last year, a similar contract incurred only fifty percent of the amount and was terminated prematurely.
In the town of Beryozovsky, Sverdlovsk region, a 19-year-old war participant, Aleksandr Kashnikov, was buried with military honors. In 2018, he and his friends beat a 20-year-old disabled person to death, but, due to being 14 at the time, Kashnikov received the shortest sentence of the group—8.5 years in prison. However, he served only 4 years before signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense in June 2023 and going to war as a volunteer fighter. He was killed in an artillery attack on July 2.
The serviceman from the 810th Brigade, who previously reported death threats and the lack of medical assistance, appeared on a video about fighting in the village of Robotyne, in which he denied Ukraine’s statements about the presence of civilians in the village and their evacuation. His fellow soldier believes that the video may have been recorded under pressure. The soldier himself denies the fact of pressure, but mentions that he is "not safe" at the moment.
A mobilized native of Russia's constituent Republic of Bashkortostan had an issue with payment for his injury. The command took his medical records during the soldier's transfer from a military hospital to a regular one. For a month, the man tried to claim the payments, but the issue was resolved only after he appealed to the Military Prosecutor's Office.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
The Vladimir Garrison Military Court has issued the first guilty verdict in several years to a serviceman on charges of sexual intercourse and indecent acts committed against a person under the age of sixteen. The identity of the accused remains undisclosed. As we recently reported, in 2022, Russian military courts received the highest number of cases in ten years involving crimes against sexual integrity committed by military personnel.
The Vladimir Garrison Military Court has also begun reexamining lawsuits from Rosgvardia [the National Guard of Russia] personnel who contest the decision by their command to deny them compensation for injuries sustained in the war with Ukraine. On March 3, 2022, OMON [riot police] personnel came under attack. The command’s denial of compensation was initially upheld by the court. However, the court of appeal later overturned this decision, and the case was sent for reconsideration.
The Lyudi Baikala [People of Baikal] independent media outlet, citing local residents, reports that a man, who participated in the war with Ukraine was detained for the murder of a female partner in the village of Barguzin in Buryatia [Russia's constituent republic]. According to local residents, the man volunteered for the war back in the spring of 2022 and in the spring of 2023, he came home on leave. While visiting his sister, the man assaulted his female partner. A week later, the woman died in the hospital without regaining consciousness. According to the villagers, posting about the murder is prohibited on a local social media platform.
Journalists from the Vyorstka media outlet revealed that pardoned former convicts, recruited by the Wagner Group, are suspected of the murder of at least twelve people and of four cases of rape. These crimes were committed after their return from the frontline following the expiration of a six-month contract or after being wounded. We covered many of these crimes in our sitreps.
Three servicemen from Bashkortostan, suspected of murder committed outside Starobilsk, Luhansk region, are searched in Russia’s border regions and occupied territories. The men had reportedly signed six-month contracts with the Ministry of Defense in April. This suggests that they had been recruited from prisons, given that contracts for civilians typically span a minimum of one year.
The man who set on fire a draft office in Yekaterinburg on Aug. 22 (we covered this incident in our yesterday’s summary), has voluntarily come to police to report the frauds who convinced him to transfer them 3.8 million rubles [$40,000] and set the draft office on fire to reclaim the money. It's worth recalling that the Sverdlovsk Region Military Commissariat claimed yesterday that the reported arson attack was, in fact, a drill taking place near the draft office.
Journalists of the Bumaga [Paper] independent media outlet have counted all known sabotage cases in Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad region since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Among them are 13 arson attacks on relay cabinets and the same number of attempts to set fire to military commissariats. Only one incident was officially qualified as sabotage (the sabotage of the power pylon) and one as an act of terror (the explosion in which Vladlen Tatarsky was killed).
Assistance
Nyagan ambulance staff introduced local law enforcement forces to the basics of tactical medicine. According to the doctors, these classes were aimed at giving the police officers knowledge of what to do in cases of injuries, shrapnel and bullet wounds, and injuries from explosions.
Rustam Ravilov, head of the Commonwealth of Combat Veterans of Tatarstan [Russia’s constituent Republic], reported that the participants in the war were dissatisfied with the support provided by the authorities. According to him, support measures for combatants exist "only on paper and for the press." Russian servicemen can neither receive the necessary medical care nor parcels sent by numerous funds. Ravilov says that military men promise to hold officials responsible upon their return from the war.
Children
Izvestia [The News, a Russian pro-Kremlin daily broadsheet newspaper and a news channel] reports that in 2022 the authorities spent twice as much on "patriotic education" as they had planned. Initially, the government allocated 5.5 billion rubles [$58M] for these purposes, and at the end of the year, expenditures amounted to 11.4 billion rubles [$120M].
Governor of the Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov asked students’ parents to help tape up the windows of educational institutions with impact-resistant film.
Miscellaneous
A monument to fallen mercenaries of the Wagner Group was officially opened at a cemetery in Novosibirsk, where 357 mercenaries are buried.
In Primorsko-Akhtarsk, a monument to "a Russian soldier—a participant in the special military operation" was installed. According to the head of the district, "Russian warriors resist world hegemony."
Longreads
The wife of a volunteer fighter attempted suicide because she did not share the war-propaganda values that had influenced her husband to go to war. The volunteer fighter himself expected his wife to support him and provide media support to the "special military operation."
After the start of the war in Ukraine, there was a 97% increase in mortality among young men in North Ossetia – Alania [Russia’s constituent republic]. Govorit NeMoskva [independent media outlet] published an article about the life of a mother who lost her son, one of the killed servicemen from North Ossetia, a year after his death.  It also delved into the perspectives of other residents of the region regarding the ongoing war.