Mobilization in Russia for Aug. 25-26, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
Vladimir Putin instructed the Government and regional executive bodies to fund the territorial defense units of the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions from the federal budget. Putin issued this directive following a meeting on the situation in the border regions, which took place on Thursday. During the meeting, the governors themselves requested funding for the territorial defense forces.
At an operational meeting of the regional government, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, instructed the regional operational headquarters to consider the "complete closure" of three localities in the region: the villages of Dronovka and Poroz in the Grayvoron district and the village of Stary Khutor in the Valuysky district.
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
In Karelia [Russia’s constituent republic], unemployed individuals are being assigned to military service recruitment facilities, as a subscriber from Petrozavodsk reported to the Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] Telegram channel. The unemployed are being offered positions as "enlisted personnel." These assignments are given at every visit to the employment center (once every two weeks). The subscriber confirmed that there are no negative consequences for refusing to sign a contract. Lawyers note that contract-based military service does not meet the criteria for job selection, so the assignment of the unemployed to recruitment facilities is legally considered a form of informing them about the possibility of signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense rather than traditional job placement assistance.
In the Khanty-Mansi autonomous region–Yugra [Russia's federal subject], the Nizhnevartovsk city authorities have introduced a sign-up bonus of 150,000 rubles [$1,640] for signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense, which will be paid out of the city budget. Previously, in the Khanty-Mansi autonomous region–Yugra, the regional sign-up bonus was increased to 1.3 million rubles [$14,200]. Including the federal payment, recruits who sign up for contract-based military service in Nizhnevartovsk will receive 1.85 million rubles [$20,200], and then an additional 100,000 rubles [$1,090] promised upon completion of the contract.
Ivan Rossomakhin, a 28-year-old former mercenary of the Wagner Group who returned from the war, raped and murdered an 85-year-old woman and was sentenced to 23 years in a maximum security penal colony for that crime, has redeployed to the war. This was reported by the Travmpunkt [First-Aid Station] human rights project, citing the head of the penal colony. The decree on Rossomakhin's release was published by the Ostorozhno, Novosti [Beware the News] Telegram channel. Rossomakhin signed a contract with the MoD and was deployed to the combat zone after spending eight days in the penal colony, where he was supposed to remain until 2046. Despite his release, Rossomakhin remains obligated to pay the relatives of the deceased 2 million rubles [$21,900] as compensation for moral damages.
Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers
The list of mobilized soldiers killed in the war has been updated to include Pavel Korolkov from the Novgorod region and Aleksandr Zagorodnev from the Samara region. In Tolyatti, Samara region, the polling station where Zagorodnev served as chairman has been named after him.
A 19-year-old soldier, Zakhar Sosnin, has died in the Kursk region, as reported by his relatives in the VKontakte social network. According to the obituary, the soldier died "in the line of duty in combat." Sosnin was drafted for compulsory military service from the Zabaykalsky region [Russia's federal subject] in December 2023, and in the spring of 2024, he signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense.
Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet], together with human rights activists, have explained how conscripts can avoid being sent to war, how to properly submit a report, and what to do next.
Aleksey Sapunov, a 34-year-old mobilized soldier from the Tula region, was wounded twice during his service: in February and June 2024. Despite the trauma sustained in the second incident, Sapunov continued to perform his duties for another two weeks. Field medics confirmed his injuries and recommended hospitalization. However, his commanders sent him on another combat mission in the Kharkiv region. When Sapunov repeatedly filed reports demanding medical treatment, he was threatened with a criminal case for desertion, and with being thrown into a pit or basement in the village of Zaitseve. His wife revealed that he signed a contract in May to receive benefits and compensation for his injuries, but the family ended up receiving no money.
Military commanders are threatening the wife of Sergeant Yanis Manichkin, 41, who has been serving at the 59th Tank Regiment. Manichkin was wounded twice and after his second wound, Manichkin petitioned the Military Prosecutor’s Office from his hospital bed. On Aug. 23, his wife received a letter stating that his petition was redirected to his unit. As soon as the unit received the prosecutor’s inquiry, the man was transferred to another unit where he was promptly sent to forward positions where he was wounded twice more. The new unit’s assistant commander for political affairs informed Mrs. Manichkin that the soldier had allegedly deserted. The serviceman himself has told his wife multiple times that the commanders were trying to get rid of him and, therefore, claim everything on "desertion." The last contact with Manichkin was on Aug. 13. His wife doesn’t know whether he is even alive, while the commanders are threatening her.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
On Aug. 16, the First Eastern Military District Court sentenced Valery Zaytsev, a 9th grader suffering from tuberculosis, to four and a half years in a juvenile penal colony for throwing a bottle with incendiary mixture. Zaytsev, 16, was found guilty of participating in a terrorist activity and training to commit an act of terror. The prosecution requested a nine year sentence for the teenager and the court took five days to decide on his case behind closed doors. Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] reports that the evidence against Zaytsev consists of his correspondence with an unnamed witness and a video, taken by that same witness of the teenager throwing a Molotov cocktail at a wall of an abandoned building. Zaytsev, then 14, was detained in October 2023 at a tuberculosis ward in Komsomolsk-on-Amur where he had been undergoing treatment. Together with Zaytsev, the authorities detained Nikita Turlaev, 19, who is facing the same charges plus calling for terrorism. According to the investigators, Turlaev allegedly sympathized with the Azov Brigade of the AFU, was plotting to commit an act of terror, and administered anti-war groups on social networks. Mediazona told the story of Zaytsev while the Agenstvo [Agency] independent media outlet compiled stories of the youngest "terrorists" who ended up behind bars before turning 16.
In Russia’s constituent Republic of Tatarstan, a 50-year-old local resident whoset fire to a military court building in Kazan has been placed under arrest. The resulting fire destroyed a dining room. A criminal case has been initiated against the woman for a terrorist attack committed by a group in conspiracy. At the time of the arson, she was standing near the commandant's office with her 13-year-old son. According to investigators, being opposed to the war, she began communicating with an "unidentified officer of Ukraine’s Psychological Operations (CIPsO) of the AFU," during which she agreed to commit the "terrorist attack." The prosecution insisted on placing her in a pre-trial detention center. As noted by the Sota media outlet, the court did not take into account that the suspect has a child under 14 years old, although this fact should be considered a mitigating factor.
A resident of the Stavropol region and two schoolchildren from Nevinnomyssk have been sent to a pre-trial detention center in a case involving the setting fire to communication stations. They are charged with aiding an act of terror committed in a group. According to the court ruling dated Aug. 19, the case was initiated on July 31, and it involves 9th-grade female student A. Bryazgun, 8th-grader A. Titov, and someone named Aleksey Shagrov. According to investigators, they set fire to four mobile network base stations in Stavropol "with the intention to destabilize the work of government authorities." The detention of the two teenagers became known on Aug. 6.
A court in Moscow sentenced two nurses, 55-year-old Vera Nikolayeva and 28-year-old Anastasia Lysenkova, to a year of forced labor for writing "Đ“ĐŁĐ " (Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine) on a monument to Zhukov on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow. At the request of the defendants, the case was tried in a special procedure without the examination of evidence. Although it was not mentioned in the indictment, both women were victims of a telephone scam, which was noted in the psychiatric report included in the case materials.
In Omsk, the Federal Security Service (FSB) detained a local resident on suspicion of high treason. According to law enforcement officers, the man collected photo and video materials on the production activities of one of the region's defense enterprises and sent them to Ukrainian intelligence.
The Sever.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet reported on the case of 26-year-old Ukrainian citizen Artyom Prokopets, who was arrested in June this year on suspicion of sabotage. According to investigators, on April 3, Prokopets damaged two transformers at an electrical substation, leaving two districts of Saint Petersburg and nearby areas of the Vsevolozhsky district in the Leningrad region without power. Prokopets faces up to 20 years in prison.
Assistance
The Ministry of Justice has proposed allowing the widows of deceased soldiers to re-register their husbands' vehicles in their names before the inheritance process is completed, without the usual six-month waiting period and without a notary fee.
Children
The Solnyshko children's center in the Saratov region hosted a meeting with military personnel. Around 100 young athletes participated in the event, where representatives from the local branch of Combat Brotherhood [all-Russian public organization of veterans] showed the children a grenade launcher and grenades and had them try on bulletproof vests.
Andrey Klyuzov, the Minister of Regional Policy for the Novosibirsk region, suggested sending migrant children to the Young Army [pro-Kremlin youth organization] for "patriotic re-education." He believes this would help address the issue of their social integration into Russian society.
In Arkhangelsk, at a citywide teachers' council, educators were informed about "solving problems of the families of veterans and participants in the special military operation." The council also discussed "lessons of courage," which will be conducted by participants in the war in Ukraine.
Since the war began, the proportion of female political prisoners in Russia has increased, according to the Vyorstka media outlet. In 2024, women made up 27% of all political prisoners in Russia (13 out of 48 people), the highest percentage in the past 14 years.
Miscellaneous
Russian Orthodox Church leaders across Russia have announced an urgent "mobilization" of priests for the frontline. According to the directive, a corps of volunteer clerics must be assembled by Sept. 20, with an informal field headquarters for the church's "military department" to be established in Kursk. Following training, the selected priests will be deployed to the frontline for two-month rotations.
Former Ukrainian convicts who found themselves in the occupied territories of Ukraine have reported that they were coerced into accepting Russian citizenship and forcibly transported to Russia against their will. Those who have since been released are now attempting to return to their homeland.
In the Saratov region, another "Special Military Operation Museum" has opened, featuring printed photographs, children's drawings, weapon fragments, shell casings, clothing, and camouflage nets. The regional governor had previously demanded that similar exhibitions be established in all districts. Meanwhile, the Rosgvardia [the Russian National Guard] museum has unveiled a display of "trophies from the special military operation zone."