Mobilization in Russia for December 15–16, CIT volunteer summary
The Central Bank of Russia has reported about lack of manpower due to the mobilization. The Bank of Russia, relying on the meeting of the board of directors on the key interest rate, has reported that due to the mobilization in Russia there was "an increasing lack of labor force in many industries".
The State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia] was presented with a bill on exemption from the so-called "partial" mobilization for men with academic degrees. It was also mentioned that the exemption didn't correlate with nation-wide mobilization. Earlier, the Ministry of Defense did not support the draft law on draft deferral for Candidates and Doctors of Science. Meanwhile, Minister of science and higher education of Russia Valery Falkov reported that all candidates and holders of academic [doctor] degrees had been provided with draft deferral. It should be noted that according to our readers not every university strives to provide their employees with draft deferrals. In particular, we mean scientists with highly demanded military specialties. Moreover, the required condition for receiving draft deferral is a full-time job. At the same time, many university teachers have research institutes as a main place of work.
Leader of the Spravedlivaya Rossiya Party [A Just Russia — For Truth pro-Kremlin party] Sergey Mironov urged to issue special federal loan bonds called "People and Army are one" for funding the war. The rate he suggests is 2%, and a single bond price should not exceed 500 rubles.
Deputy head of the Presidential Administration Sergey Kiriyenko visited the Donetsk prosthetic and orthopedic center. Earlier, Marina Ahmedova, member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, complained to president Putin about the fact that all prosthetists but one were mobilized. Kiriyenko did not return the medics from the front, but promised to create a facility development program instead.
Following Crimea, a decision to allocate plots for the building of houses for participants of the war in Ukraine was made in the Kostroma region. The Governor's decision to introduce an additional measure of support was approved by the regional Duma [parliament] members. A list of plots to be allocated to servicemen will be made by local authorities.
In Russia, the first three sentences were issued for desertion and abandoning a unit during mobilization. Sentences were issued in Murmansk, Nizhny Novgorod, and Solnechnogorsk, Moscow region. Soldiers from Nizhny Novgorod and Solnechnogorsk received suspended sentences, while the punishment in Murmansk remains unknown.
The Ministry of Defense has published footage of training of T-80BV tank crews of the Central Military District in the rear zone of the "special operation." The crews are practicing the coordination of the combat vehicles' crew. In Sakhalin, mobilized servicemen continue to improve their engineering training skills. A mobilized soldier demonstrated the everyday life of an artillery battery in the combat zone.
More mobilized soldiers from Kuzbass [region of Russia] recorded a complimentary video. The soldiers, who are stationed in Omsk, showed their everyday life and several times thanked the regional government for its assistance. They have no complaints.
The first convoys of mobilized people from Chuvashia [constituent republic of the Russian Federation] were sent to Ukraine from the Ulyanovsk region. Head of Chuvashia Oleg Nikolayev came to see off mobilized soldiers. The last train with servicemen will leave for the war on Dec. 17. The servicemen themselves say that there is no exact information about the place where their battalion will be deployed. "For now, we are going in the direction of Crimea," one of the mobilized men reported. Already a second regiment has left from the collection point at Kazan Expo [exhibition center in Kazan, turned into a collection point] to the frontline. The first convoy of mobilized Tatarstan [constituent republic of the Russian Federation] citizens left for the joint combat training center on Oct. 23. Now, one more regiment remains in Kazan, according to the military commissariat of Tatarstan. There is no information on when they will be sent to the combat zone. A military training center in Chebarkul has also started sending mobilized servicemen to combat units, according to Governor of the Chelyabinsk region Aleksey Teksler.
In the Rostov region, the Donskoy Kamen mineral processing company holds back 3-5% of employees' salaries for the needs of the "special military operation." The employees themselves are told that this is necessary so that they are not mobilized. The Novosibirsk regional branch of the Russian Pension Fund also commented on the fundraising for military personnel: "Employees of the Pension Fund voluntarily donated 18 million rubles from their personal funds for the needs of the military." Director of the Novosibirsk regional branch, member of the Novosibirsk regional legislative assembly from the United Russia party [Putin’s ruling party] Aleksandr Terepa assured that "participation in these events is exclusively voluntary."
A mobilized serviceman was sent back to a military unit after being hospitalized. Ilnur, a Tyumen resident, suffered internal bleeding in a military unit after which he was hospitalized for two weeks. He was diagnosed with an ulcer, and his medical report states that he should be discharged from the military. But Ilnur was returned to the unit again after being examined by a primary care doctor from the Tyumen Higher Military Engineering Command School, who apparently considers that such a diagnosis does not disqualify a person from military service.
A mobilized man has died in Primorsky region. 48-year-old Denis Sh. from Vladivostok was mobilized on Sept. 24. He trained at the Sergeyevsky training ground near the border with China. Recently the man had gone on leave but after coming back in the morning he didn’t show up during a roll call . Fellow soldiers found his body without signs of life in a tent. The cause of death will be examined. He had two children.
The number of dead and killed mobilized servicemen confirmed by Mediazona online media outlet and the BBC is 433 people (a week earlier, it was 430). Total confirmed losses reached 10 229 people.
The fathers of 1356 children have been mobilized in Karelia [Russia’s constituent republic] They can claim a regional payout of 50,000 rubles. But deputy of the Karelia Legislative Assembly Emilia Slabunova is sure that it is not enough. Children whose fathers were taken to the war are in need of psychological assistance. “I am constantly thinking of the state of those almost fifteen hundred children who worry and fear for their fathers. It is necessary to add those children whose elder brothers have been mobilized to this number,” Emilia Slabunova wrote.
An armed mobilized man was detained in the Moscow metro. 47-year-old Oleg K. came to Moscow from Nizhny Novgorod. He was stopped at the Cherkizovskaya metro station by security service who found a bayonet knife and an optical sight with him. He explained that he was mobilized in the beginning of October, he was given a weapon but he got to a hospital and was treated in Nizhny Novgorod. All the time the man carried the knife and the sight with him. The weapon was seized from him, and the police are investigating.
A resident of the Moscow region was forcibly taken to a military commissariat [enlistment office] without a draft notice by policemen as part of the autumn conscription. 21-year-old Ilya Rasskazov had his passport taken away during the detention. 25-year-old Daniil Panov was stopped by policemen in the center of Moscow and asked to show his documents. When the police realized that he was eligible for conscription they loaded Daniil into a paddy wagon and took to the military commissariat of the Tverskoy district. Daniil and another detained young man refused to sign an agreement to serve in the army and they were allowed to go home about 2 a.m. They weren’t given back their phones or passports and were required to come back to the military commissariat for registration.
In the village of Basyanovsky in the Sverdlovsk region, a group of local housewives collected money and joined forces to make pelmeni [Russian-style meat dumplings] and send them to soldiers along with New Year greetings. They are planning to make 50 thousand dumplings in six days. In the Novosibirsk region, the local pro-Putin women’s council launched a care package drive called Lard to the Front. Besides the lard, the packages also contain letters from local schoolchildren “wishing the soldiers an end of their combat mission and a speedy return home”. “Cultural volunteers” in the village of Volokonovka initiated production and collection of knitted clothes for military servicemen. Their new “Knitting Battalion” now joins the “Special Needle Forces” and the “Sewing Corps”.
Novosibirsk city council members have received a letter asking for “assistance in procuring groceries for holiday meals.” Soldiers’ relatives are requesting that such food items as sausages, cheeses, dried calamari, champaign, and energy drinks be sent to the servicemen.