Mobilization in Russia for December 19–20, CIT volunteer summary

President Putin has created a working group on mobilization issues and social support of service members fighting in Ukraine, headed by Andrey Turchak [Senator from Pskov region]. The order is published in the state law database.

Senator Andrey Klishas said that a draft bill prohibiting working from abroad for a number of specialties will be sent for review to the Government in the coming days. After receiving the review, the bill will be sent to the State Duma. A list of professions for which remote work from abroad will be prohibited should be determined by the Government.

In the meantime, Maksut Shadayev, head of the MinTsifry [Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media], stated that around 100,000 IT specialists have left Russia this year. This represents 10 percent of the total number of IT employees. 80 percent of IT specialists who have emigrated are still employed by companies registered in Russia.

Vice-Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Bashkortostan [Russia's constituent republic] Rustam Ishmukhametov proposed providing residents of the republic fighting in Ukraine with the possibility of remote voting. Elections to the Bashkortostan Legislative Assembly will be held next year.

A resident of Moscow holding Armenian citizenship reported to the Sota Telegram channel that the police is seeking migrants without Russian citizenship. They are forced to register with a military commissariat [enlistment office] and volunteer to join Russian troops.

Saigid Bilalov, the mayor of the Ural town of Alapaevsk, sent his son back to the front after a head wound. The mobilized Ruslan Bilalov was injured on October 28 during a drone strike and underwent surgery in a hospital. This did not stop his strict father - Bilalov forced his son to return to the war. “Ruslan is ready for everything. Yes, the special operation inflicted deep scars, but the defense of the Fatherland is a debt of honor,” the mayor of Alapaevsk wrote on his social network page.

A locksmith with severe respiratory illness was mobilized in Kazan. Pavel Nikulin, 33, was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea. With this disease, a person can stop breathing completely in their sleep. Olesya, Pavel's wife, states that at home her husband sleeps with a CPAP machine that provides supplemental oxygen. The man was mobilized on Oct. 29, despite medical certificates provided, and has already spent more than a month and a half at the Kazan Expo assembly point. Meanwhile, the wife has filed a lawsuit and is awaiting the court's judgment.

The sister of a mobilized from the Vladimir region, Elena, recorded a video message to the Head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, asking him to look into their situation. Her brother was wounded in a leg and shell-shocked while pulling a comrade out of a trench. The primary medical card (form 100) was taken away from him in the field hospital while the fragments from his leg were not removed. Now he is being sent back to the frontline.

Ksenia Abramova, the wife of a mobilized Krasnodar resident, picketed in front of the regional administration building. On Dec. 15, the local court ruled that the mobilization of her husband Aleksey, who suffers from a herniated disc was lawful. The condition makes it difficult for him to lift heavy items and wear body armor. He is taking pain medications. Abramova sued to have her husband undergo a medical examination that would declare her husband unfit for military service and have the command send him home. During the mobilization process, Aleksey showed his medical record to a draft board but they “just ignored” them. After Ksenia’s protest in front of the Krasnodar region government building, it appeared that the regional authorities were unaware of Aleksey’s whereabouts.

A Bratsk resident Denis, 33, decided not to hide from the mobilization and went to serve after receiving his draft notice. On Nov. 11, he was sent to the front, and his attitude towards the war changed. At every opportunity, he telephones his sister to tell her of the horrors he’s witnessing and begs her to pull him out of there.

Conscript soldiers from the Moscow region complained to their relatives about their living conditions in a unit near Bryansk. According to a relative of one of the conscripts, soldiers have been living in abandoned houses since they were drafted. This week, according to the soldiers, they are being transferred from the houses to live in trenches, while mobilized soldiers should arrive to replace them.

The Ministry of Defense continues to publish stories about the combat everyday life of mobilized soldiers. Training and combat coordination of soldiers are taking place in the rear areas of the "special operation" zone. Soldiers are also practicing firing at the training grounds. Airborne units are trained at training grounds in the rear of the “special operation” zone. Mobilized residents of Sakhalin are taking a course in tactical medicine. In addition, the Ministry of Defense publishes footage directly from the combat zone, showing crews of mobilized soldiers firing BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers and mortars. Soloist of the New Opera Moscow theater Aleksandr Tyupa was mobilized and enlisted in a motorized rifle company as a machine gunner. After completing combat training, Aleksandr was sent to the First Front-line Creative Brigade of the Ministry of Defense of Russia (there is such a one!), and now he gives concerts for soldiers on the frontline. The Ministry of Defense also announces the opening of a Stavropol center for the production of clothing for soldiers performing tasks in the "special operation" zone.

Children are "mobilized" in Penza. On Dec. 28, children will begin patrolling the streets as part of the Tiger squad. Today, they solemnly took the oath on the town square. Similar patrols will appear in other cities and towns of Russia.

The initiative to make dumplings for RuAF servicemen was supported in Kursk. Local elderly women there made 500 kilograms of dumplings for soldiers.

In one of the published obituaries for a mobilized man who was killed in the war, there is a phrase: “He returned, but not in the form in which his family had been waiting for him.”

In Berdiansk, the Ritual company [local funeral service company] in cooperation with the city administration, offers families of killed servicemen 15% discounts on coffins.

In the Krasnodar school 95-F, a "New Year into every trench" action was organized to collect parcels for RuAF servicemen. As it was reported to the 93.ru local news portal, the action was organized by the Council of Leaders of the 95th school and the Kod dobra [Code of Good] volunteer group.