Mobilization in Russia for Dec. 10-12, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary

Authorities and Legislation

Maxim Ivanov, a member of the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia], wrote that authorities will now treat dead and wounded servicemen in the Kursk region as participants in the "special military operation." A decree signed by Vladimir Putin on Dec. 9 removes the "territorial criterion" from the "special military operation," enabling the families of servicemen who die while carrying out combat missions to receive not only an insurance payout and a one-time allowance of about 8 million rubles [$76,100], but also an additional payment of 5 million rubles [$47,500]. This mirrors the compensation that families of those killed in the invasion of Ukraine currently receive.

In consecutive second and third readings, the State Duma passed a bill expanding the criteria for inclusion in the register of "terrorists and extremists" to cover crimes motivated by religious, racial, national or political hatred or enmity. In addition to offenses like displaying extremist symbols, desecration of the deceased and calls for activities that undermine state security, authorities could apply this measure to individuals charged with "discrediting" or spreading "fake news" about the Armed Forces, murder, death threats and hooliganism. Inclusion in the list, maintained by the Federal Financial Monitoring Service, triggers severe restrictions on financial transactions, limiting individuals to spending no more than 10,000 rubles [$95] per month.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense has proposed to amend two government decrees regulating payments for signing military contracts. Under the new rules, contract soldiers would be required to return their sign-up bonuses if they evade their military duties or commit any crimes, including military offenses such as going AWOL or disobeying orders. Since the amount to be repaid depends on the remaining duration of the contract, this measure primarily targets recruits who have recently enlisted. For now, the new rules would apply only to the federal component of the sign-up bonuses.

Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising

In the Rostov region, the payment for mobilized soldiers and conscripts signing contracts with the MoD will increase from 400,000 rubles [$3,800] to 1 million rubles [$9,510] starting Dec. 16. Meanwhile, civilians and foreign nationals who decide to sign contracts with the MoD will still receive 1.6 million rubles [$15,200] from the regional budget.

Authorities in the Saratov region have introduced monetary incentives for recruiting individuals to sign contracts with the MoD. Adults who bring prospective servicemen to a draft office will receive a payment of 10,000 rubles [$95], provided the individual signs a contract with the Russian Armed Forces between Dec. 1, 2024, and Dec. 31, 2025.

In the Ulyanovsk region, police coerced a man into signing a military contract. Twenty-eight-year-old Aleksandr Yakovlev, previously sentenced to three years in a penal colony for extortion, was required to report to the police monthly following his release. However, on Dec. 4, police officers came to his home, took him to the police station and forced him to sign a contract. Yakovlev has since been sent to the city of Rostov and informed his family that he has been assigned to a motorized rifle unit. He is expected to soon depart for training in the occupied Luhansk region.

Sergey Trigilyov, the former military commissar for Moscow's Preobrazhensky district accused of bribery, has joined the war, leading to the suspension of the criminal case against him. Trigilyov's plans to go to the frontline became known in September.

A court in the Tula region has suspended proceedings against 29-year-old Maksim Khodov, who was on trial for kidnapping, assaulting and raping his ex-wife, allowing him to join the war instead. According to the victim, her ex-husband warned her during the trial that he would evade punishment, go to war, and then return to kill her.

In the Izmaylovo district of Moscow, OMON [riot police] officers raided a business center. All men without a military registration stamp in their passports were taken to a local draft office. Law enforcement officers separated Russian passport holders from foreign nationals. The detainees, aged 20 to 40, were all issued notices to appear at a draft office for a data check, regardless of their age, and fined 5,000 rubles [$48] for lacking a military registration stamp.

In Tyumen, on Dec. 12, law enforcement officers conducted a raid targeting men who had obtained Russian citizenship. Nine people who were not registered for military service were taken to a draft office. According to the officers, since the beginning of 2024, 798 former foreigners have been registered for military service, of whom 42 were conscripted during the fall conscription campaign, and 53 signed contracts to participate in the war against Ukraine.

In Moscow, in the early hours of Dec. 11, police detained a transgender woman without providing an official reason for the detention, stating only that they "wanted to send her to the army." In the morning, she was initially taken to the district draft office, then to the regional draft office and later transported to a military collection point. That same evening, the woman was able to escape but was detained again and reportedly taken to a police station in the Pechatniki district of Moscow. Human rights activists believe that she may have been returned to the military collection point.

Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers

The Institute of Forensic Medicine and Criminology has confirmed that the signature on the military contract in the name of Nikita Molochkovsky, a conscript soldier from the Sakhalin region, does not belong to him. This information was conveyed to the editorial office of the Sibir.Realii online media outlet by sources familiar with the case. Molochkovsky had sued his military unit's command over the falsified contract but was nevertheless deployed to the frontline, where he was killed. According to his family, all conscripts from his company were deployed to Ukraine with forged signatures. Recently, Molochkovsky’s relatives received an examination report and a notification from the military investigation department of the Investigative Committee, stating that the criminal case based on his claim had been closed. The Okno [Window] project has reported the story of three conscripts from Sakhalin, including Molochkovsky, who stated that officers had signed contracts with the MoD on their behalf and sent them to the war. In December, the last of these three conscripts, Viktor Baturin, who had previously been listed as missing in action, was reported killed.

Vasily Limarenko, governor of the Sakhalin region, reported that 182 soldiers from the region were killed in the war from September to December. This represents 22.5% of the total confirmed casualties since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, according to Sibir.Realii. In total, based on calculations by BBC News Russian and Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet], 809 service members from the Sakhalin region have been killed in the war. By comparison, Limarenko had reported the death of 72 soldiers during the three summer months of this year.

According to Tatyana Merzlyakova, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Sverdlovsk region, 29 soldiers from the region were returned from Ukrainian captivity in 2024. She also reported receiving 49,000 appeals this year, 45% of which were related to the war in Ukraine.

Renat Gizatulin, a soldier from the 5th Motorized Rifle Brigade, lost his arm in combat. Despite the severity of his injury, he was not evacuated to a hospital as ordered by command and was kept at forward positions for six months. Gizatulin recorded a video address asking for help.

Aleksandr Sadirov, a soldier from the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade, reported abuse in his unit. He was kept in handcuffs for a week, chained to a bed and radiator while being repeatedly beaten. Under torture, Sadirov was forced to falsely confess to drug possession and forced to give up his personal vehicle. Despite having metal plates in his leg and multiple injuries, he was scheduled to be sent to the frontline on Dec. 10.

Yevgeny Vasilyev, a mobilized soldier from the Kursk region who suffers from mental disorders and epilepsy and has attempted suicide multiple times, is being forcibly returned to the frontline. Vasilyev was drafted without undergoing a medical evaluation board. His health has significantly deteriorated during his service. He has been hospitalized in psychiatric hospitals several times and has made two suicide attempts. In September 2024, he was declared AWOL, and in October, military police took him for a military medical board examination. However, the evaluation was suspended, and on Dec. 9, he was taken back to his unit to be sent to the frontline.

According to classified MoD directives, soldiers who have lost brothers on the frontline are allowed to leave forward positions. Lawyers learned of these directives through court proceedings. Under the Defense Minister's instructions, it is forbidden to simultaneously deploy close relatives for combat missions in the "special military operation" or deploy servicemen whose close relatives have died in the war. The documents are marked "for official use only," and commanders often deny such requests, claiming they are unaware of this directive.

A conscript from the city of Cheboksary was deceived into signing a contract with the MoD. Twenty-three-year-old Artyom G. was drafted in October 2024. On the way to his unit, he was pressured to sign a contract, while being deliberately deprived of sleep. Once at the unit, he met another conscript who introduced himself as the commander of the supply company. This man convinced Artyom to sign a one-year contract "service at headquarters," warning that otherwise, he would be sent to the Ukraine-Russia border. The next day, Artyom realized that he had been deceived and requested to cancel the contract, but his request was rejected. Relatives of other conscripts serving in the 90th Tank Division in Chebarkul have also reported that draftees from Chuvashia [Russia’s constituent republic]and the Irkutsk region are being subjected to similar pressure. Human rights commissioner Merzlyakova told journalists that she is in contact with the division commander and is closely monitoring the situation. However, she claimed that many conscripts are allegedly interested in learning how to sign contracts on their own.

On Dec. 10 the Put Domoy [Way Home] movement, representing relatives of mobilized soldiers, called on its Telegram followers to send questions about demobilization for the program “Year in Review with Vladimir Putin,” scheduled for Dec. 19. In the first two days, over 300 people submitted such questions. However, among the topics publicly highlighted by the authorities, no questions regarding the war were included.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

In the Samara region, a former mercenary of the Wagner Group was sentenced to eight years in a penal colony for the murder of his girlfriend. On April 7 of this year, the man and his girlfriend consumed alcohol and synthetic drugs together. During their conversation, the woman told him how "Ukrainian handlers" had tried to recruit her sixth-grade nephew and planned to carry out 20 explosions in Tolyatti. During a subsequent altercation, the ex-mercenary strangled the woman. The following day, he went to the Federal Security Service (FSB) and reported the incident, claiming that he had killed his girlfriend because she had tried to recruit him.

In the Sakhalin region, serviceman Konstantin Litvinenko was sentenced to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony for extorting drugs with life-threatening violence, illegal drug possession and desertion during mobilization. According to the court, on April 13, Litvinenko went to the apartment of his female acquaintance and forcibly took drugs from her, inflicting several knife wounds. At the same time, police were searching for Litvinenko because he had been absent from service. Litvinenko was detained on April 16. However, on May 24, he escaped again and was detained only on Aug. 21.

Mobilized soldier Aleksey G. was sentenced to six years in a penal colony for going AWOL. At the end of last year, he was tasked with escorting a coffin containing the body of a killed fellow soldier to be delivered to relatives in Saint Petersburg. After completing the assignment, he failed to return to his unit. He was detained by military police in August 2024.

In Vladimir, servicemen are accused of involving a minor in committing a crime, assault, kidnapping, attempted murder, illegal entry into a residence, going AWOL and causing grievous bodily harm. In Moscow, a court arrested a warrant officer on charges of rape.

The Southern District Military Court has upheld the verdict against Hamid Nudaev, a serviceman from Chechnya [Russia's constituent republic]. He was sentenced to six and a half years in a penal colony for attempted murder after shooting at a Crimean resident who was filming his drunk fellow soldier on a phone. Nudaev claimed that the victim was allegedly recording military vehicles and that a "spontaneous shot" occurred when Nudaev pushed him.

Two soldiers attacked a hostel guest with a knife in Saint Petersburg during the early hours of Dec. 11. The assailants, both previously convicted, were identified as a 42-year-old native of the Sverdlovsk region and a 24-year-old resident of the Irkutsk region who had been pardoned in 2023. The man from the Sverdlovsk region was detained, while his accomplice was released.

In the Nizhny Novgorod region, a 50-year-old woman and her 18-year-old son were sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony for attempting to set fire to a draft office. The incident occurred on Nov. 15, 2023, when the then-17-year-old threw a Molotov cocktail at the draft office window, while his mother recorded the event on video. No fire broke out, and the arsonists were detained by the police. During questioning, the woman claimed that she had fallen victim to fraud. However, the court concluded that she and her son acted on orders from Ukrainian intelligence services.

A man from Sevastopol has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for high treason. According to the Russian prosecutor's office, 48-year-old Anton Chorny allegedly collaborated with a representative of Ukraine's border service, photographing RuAF facilities and equipment, and passing information about their locations to the Ukrainian military.

A resident of occupied Donetsk has been arrested on charges of "aiding in the preparation of a terrorist attack." According to the FSB, he allegedly planned to detonate a vehicle used by Russian soldiers.

A resident of the Kursk region has been sentenced to 22 years in a penal colony on charges of treason and terrorism. According to investigators, Sergey Chernooky gathered information about transportation infrastructure in the region for the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and took part in the detonation of a pyrotechnic device in front of a public office of an unnamed political party in Zheleznogorsk. He is also accused of being a member of a terrorist group that set fire to a "branch of a charitable organization" in Kursk.

Ukrainian prisoner of war Oleksandr Maksymchuk, a member of the Azov Brigade, has claimed he was tortured at the Pretrial Detention Centre No.2 in Taganrog. Last week, a court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced him to 20 years in a maximum-security penal colony on charges of participation in a terrorist community and undergoing training for terrorist activities. Mediazona has reported on Maksymchuk's case.

The Moscow District Military Court has reinstated case files related to "terrorist" charges that had mysteriously disappeared from the court's website several days ago.

Assistance

Governor of Bashkortostan [Russia's constituent republic] Radiy Khabirov has announced the creation of the Association of "Special Military Operation Veterans" in the republic. This organization will be created "for a comprehensive solution of issues," including treatment, rehabilitation and employment of participants in the war with Ukraine.

Russian volunteers report a shortage of body bags at the frontline.

Children and Educational System

Authorities in Novokuznetsk converted a children's sports center into a military commissariat [enlistment office]. Coach Denis Mamonov, who tried to return the gym to the children, was declared a "terrorist and extremist" and put on the Rosfinmonitoring list. Mamonov believes the investigators discovered his anti-war posts, which led him to flee the country.

Miscellaneous

The Russian Teletype service has removed the list of dead military personnel from Chuvashia at the request of Roskomnadzor [Russia's internet censorship agency], according to the Serditaya Chuvashia [Angry Chuvashia] Telegram channel. Now, when trying to access the list, the browser returns an error. As of Dec. 5, the channel had identified the names of 771 Chuvashia residents killed in the war with Ukraine.