Mobilization in Russia for December 25–26, CIT volunteer summary
Vladimir Putin has appointed Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, as his first deputy in the Military Industrial Commission. Meanwhile, the Russian Minister of Defense took part in the final meeting of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense.
The State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia] decided to ban Russians who left the country from working as self-employed and raise taxes for individual entrepreneurs. Armenia’s Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan stated that Yerevan is working to ensure that the decision to raise taxes for Russians who left Russia does not affect those who relocated to Armenia.
Special forces training centers, like in Chechnya, are planned to be opened throughout Russia. This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Yuri Trutnev, “Today, a training center for fighters operates in Gudermes not only for Chechnya, but also for a significant part of Russia. We will continue this work together, and establish such centers in other territories. The task of the center is very simple — to make our country stronger, and to win as soon as possible”.
16 thousand families applied in Moscow for a one-time payment to the relatives of the mobilized, Deputy Mayor Anastasia Rakova said.
Vladislav Borisenko and Vasily Gavrilishen, accused of setting a draft office on fire in Russia’s Nizhnevartovsk, were charged with a terrorist attack. Meanwhile,a court in Makhachkala fined Isa Abdulaev, a participant in a rally against mobilization on Sept. 25, 50,000 rubles. He was found guilty in a criminal case of the use of non-life-threatening violence against a police officer.
In the so-called LDPR, a commander has beaten up soldiers, presumably the mobilized, who abandoned their positions, because of which a platoon allegedly suffered losses. Meanwhile, in Horlivka, Donetsk region, posters were put up in search of deserted servicemen, who most likely were mobilized.
Another confirmation of the fact that mobilization continues: a 50-year-old volunteer from Perm complained that, despite his contract expiring, he was still being held in the combat zone. According to his daughter, he doesn't want to fight anymore. Now the girl is trying to bring her father back home.
Almost two months have passed since the mobilization was declared complete. On Dec. 22, authorities tried to deliver a draft note to Vladimir Baranov, an anesthesiologist from St. Petersburg and an activist for the Deystvie [Action] trade union. His house was searched the day before. The pressure on the man may be linked to his trade union activities at Hospital No. 40 in St. Petersburg.
In Syktyvkar, a 20-year-old young man slit his wrists during a visit to a military commissariat [enlistment office], suffering serious blood loss. After the incident, the man was taken to a psychiatric hospital.
A mobilized man was found dead in a military unit in Saratov. 31-year-old Kairzhan I. from the village of Karaganka, Orenburg region, was mobilized at the end of October. He was sent to a military unit in Saratov for training, but recently has been found dead by his fellow servicemen. There were bruises and abrasions all over his body. A coroner's report claims that the man died of mechanical asphyxia, meaning he could have hanged himself or could have been strangled. An investigation is currently underway, pending the results of which a criminal case may be initiated.
On Dec. 14, Maxim Ziborov, a 28-year-old mobilized soldier from the Orel region, was killed in Ukraine. Kirill Lazebny, a 28-year-old mobilized serviceman from the Sukhobuzimsky district of the Krasnoyarsk region, was killed near Svatove, Luhansk region. The funeral ceremony took place on Dec. 24. Enlisted at the end of September, Private Denis Pokhodaev, born in 1989 in the village of Udarnik, Voronezh region, was killed at the front on Dec. 22. Leonid Gomasko, a native of Tatarsk, Novosibirsk region, born in 1990, was mobilized on the last day of the "partial" mobilization and killed on Dec. 15 in his first battle.
The Russian Ministry of Defense showed footage of paratrooper units training on training grounds in the rear of the “special military operation” zone.
The State Duma delegate Anton Gorelkin transferred six tons of aid to draftees from Kuzbas including power generators, heaters, tents, and other frontline necessities. In Gorelkin’s own words, “Governor Sergey Tsivilyov tasked me with organizing a fundraising campaign to procure necessities. I am glad that our Kuzbas businesses were not indifferent. Thanks to them, we filled this large truck.”
In the Novosibirsk region, the father of one of the draftees manufactured 24 stoves for heating dugouts. Twenty stoves will be sent to the “Bulwark for truth” battalion and the remaining four will be delivered to the so-called LPR. Meanwhile, the aid forwarded to Tomsk draftees included a sex toy.
The problems of not being paid promised amounts are not limited to the mobilized soldiers. A contract soldier named Maksim who serves at the Alga battalion told the news portal 116.RU that he hardly received any payments due him. “Our November salary was 12 thousand rubles. For December, we don’t yet have any idea how much we will be receiving. One-time sum of 20 thousand for the children was paid out and that’s it,” he reported.
In Yekaterinburg, draft notices were sent to the mother of a boy who died 13 years ago at the age of three. The draft office blamed her housing association for the incident, “How do we know that the boy died? The draft office is not at fault here. We have 40 thousand people, it’s impossible to verify everyone. As humans, we’ll apologize of course. But the first one to apologize needs to be the director of the housing association, etc. We will, of course, explain that the management of such organizations are just incompetent.”
A Russian priest followed the example of Putin and called for reflection on advantages of dying nobly, with weapons in hands in the war, and not from alcohol or some other "stupid reasons."
Self-sacrifice is not only preached in churches, but also taught in schools at the “Talking About Important Things” lessons, “You need to sacrifice yourself for the sake of a common goal.” These are the words of a Russian serviceman who went to the "special operation" zone and was seriously wounded there. A “snow tank” was built at a children's campsite in Tyumen. They say it is "a great winter gift for children" who will come to ride tubing there.
Russian servicemen recorded a video with gratitude to the students of three Moscow schools (1544, 1564, 1747) who had sent them postcards for the New Year ending their speech with the words “Allahu Akbar.” It should be noted that, according to the Alians Uchiteley [Alliance of Teachers — interregional trade union of all those involved in education], the principal of the school 1747 Marina Sotnikova issued an order to dismiss math teacher Tatyana Chervenko, who had refused to conduct a “Talking About Important Things” lesson according to the training manuals. The principal had already denounced her for this to the police who came to the school because of that.
Rossiya-1 [Russia-1] pro-Kremlin federal TV channel showed a video report about the "problems" of Russians in Georgia. One of the women shown in the video later said that the propagandists had deceived her, “The main message should have been as follows: there are difficulties, indeed, but we, the Russians who have left, copе and successfully build our lives, unite with the Georgians, and everything is fine with us. <...> Propaganda has distorted my words and turned their meaning into a completely opposite one.”