Mobilization in Russia for Feb. 1-3, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment
On Feb. 2, MinTsifry [the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of Russia] began accepting applications for draft deferrals from compulsory military service for IT specialists for 2026. The Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] Telegram channel and the Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] community explain who is eligible for a deferral and how to apply for it correctly.
Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet], after analyzing data obtained from a hack of the Mikord company—one of the key developers of the Unified Military Register (UMR) [digital system to identify citizens subject to military service and serve draft notices]—found that the Ministry of Defense stores data on those liable for military service not only in the register itself, but also in two closed systems: Gorizont-MR and a synchronized global database.
Gorizont-MR, which appeared even before work on the UMR began, duplicates all key and sensitive information—from fitness category and military specialty to participation in conflicts and fingerprint records—effectively serving as a backup in case the open registries are destroyed. In addition, draft offices use Gorizont-MR to assign Russians a "military identifier," a unique code that makes it possible to match data about one person across different databases. Alongside the UMR, this system can also be used to compile lists of conscripts for sending out draft notices. Unlike the UMR, which is marked "for official use only," the information in Gorizont-MR is classified as a state military secret.
The main purpose of the synchronized global database is to consolidate data from the decentralized Gorizont-MR software; it serves as one of the sources of information for the UMR. In addition, through this global database, draft offices can quickly exchange the personal files of individuals liable for military service when they change their address. According to military officials, the global database may store information on 31.6 million people—more than the country’s officially stated mobilization base.
In the Saratov region, the sign-up bonus for signing a contract with the MoD was increased to 2 million rubles [$26,100] starting Feb. 1. This is already the second increase in 2026—on Jan. 1, 2026, the authorities raised the payment to 1 million rubles [$13,000]. Previously, at the end of October 2025, the bonuses had been cut nearly fivefold—from 2.2 million rubles [$28,700] to 450,000 rubles [$5,860]. The region has thus returned to the level of payments in effect before the October reduction. A similar decision was recently made in the neighboring Samara region, where payments were also set at 2.2 million rubles [$28,700].
Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts
Independent media outlet Lyudi Baikala [People of Baikal] reported the death of Arseniy Smeshchikov, marking the third known fatality among the small Tofalar indigenous ethnic group identified in 2026. While the two previous casualties were 18 years old, Smeshchikov was 22 at the time of his death in April 2025, though the publication did not specify how he ended up on the frontline. Online media outlet Sibir.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] detailed the available information regarding the other two deceased Tofalars.
Aleksey Alshansky, a member of the Proshchai Oruzhiye [A Farewell to Arms] organization, reported that police in Kazakhstan handed Semyon Bazhukov over to Russian soldiers despite his status as an asylum seeker. Although Mr. Bazhukov filed for asylum in October 2025, authorities detained him in December and transferred him to the Russian military police, who confined him at a Russian-leased military base in Priozersk. Mr. Bazhukov contacted human rights activists to report that officials planned to fly him to Russia on a military transport plane on Feb. 2. He attempted to escape again, hoping to reach Astana with the aid of activists, but Kazakh police intercepted his vehicle. Officers took him to a station and, despite his attempt to file a second asylum claim, transferred him to Russian custody on the night of Feb. 2. Mr. Bazhukov’s mother stated that her son moved to Russia in 2022, acquired citizenship, and enlisted in the army. She said, however, that he deserted his unit and fled to Kazakhstan in the summer of 2023 after being deployed to the combat zone, where he "realized the reality of the situation." This prompted Russian authorities to place him on a wanted list.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
A court in Saint Petersburg has sentenced Klaud (Aleksandr) Rommel, a 32-year-old Orthodox blogger and serviceman, to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony for the rape of a minor. According to investigators, between September 2022 and February 2024, Rommel had been raping a girl born in 2013, who is the daughter of his 46-year-old romantic partner. Rommel fought in the Donetsk region in 2014, later managed his YouTube channel with religious content. In February 2024, when the Ministry of Internal Affairs launched an investigation into the allegations, Rommel signed a contract with the MoD and went to the frontline. He returned to Saint Petersburg after sustaining an injury and was arrested in October 2024 upon his discharge from the hospital. He was then sent to a pre-trial detention center. He did not admit guilt.
In the Sverdlovsk region, a former war participant has been sentenced to 10 years in a maximum security penal colony for sexual assault against a child. The identity of the serviceman has not been disclosed. According to the E1 media outlet based in Yekaterinburg, the victim is a 12-year-old boy with a disability, the son of the unnamed serviceman's ex-wife.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 199 cases of rape were registered in the Belgorod region in 2025, which is more than in any other region of Russia, as reported by the Vyorstka media outlet. The Moscow region is ranked second, with 133 registered rapes. It is followed by the Saratov and Sverdlovsk regions, with 123 cases each, and Moscow, with 113 cases registered. This is the highest this figure has ever been in the Belgorod region, since at least 2008, and it has increased sharply compared to previous years. In 2021, the Belgorod region had 25 cases of rape registered. The number spiked to 98 in 2023, but then decreased to 65 in 2024, which tripled in 2025. Experts attribute the surge to the presence of a large number of servicemen in the region, as well as legislative norms that permit suspension of cases involving sexual violence upon the signing of a contract with the MoD, which may reinforce a sense of impunity.
The Barnaul Garrison Court has sentenced serviceman Andrey Rezunov to eight years in a general‑regime penal colony. He was convicted on charges of 11 thefts, robbery, and two episodes of desertion. The sentence was issued cumulatively with a previous conviction involving four additional thefts.
The Novosibirsk Garrison Military Court has fined serviceman Yegor Zhukov 100,000 rubles [$1,300] and revoked his driver’s license for 18 months after convicting him of violating traffic rules that resulted in grievous bodily harm. Court records state that in May 2025, Zhukov struck a minor with his vehicle, leaving the victim with severe injuries.
A court in Saint Petersburg has sentenced former assistant military commissar Yury Sergeyev to six and a half years in a general‑regime penal colony in a fraud case. Investigators said Sergeyev used his access to MoD forms to organize a scheme in which accomplices were formally employed at Rosseti Lenenergo [regional power grid operator] and Passazhiravtotrans [municipal bus company]. They then presented forged contracts claiming military service in order to receive payments. The scheme caused losses estimated at more than 3.2 million rubles [$41,700]. Alongside Sergeyev, five other people were convicted, including his wife.
A court in the Ulyanovsk region has sentenced Gazinur Timushev, a United Russia [Putin's ruling party] deputy, and Ildar Kurmakayev, a coordinator of the Defenders of the Fatherland Fund, to three and a half years and three years in a penal colony, respectively, in a large-scale fraud case. According to investigators, in June 2024, the two persuaded a fellow villager to sign a contract with the MoD, hand over his bank card and enter into a sham marriage with their acquaintance Alsu Abdullina. While the man was on the frontline, 580,000 rubles [$7,560] were withdrawn from his card. After he went missing in action in April 2025, Abdullina applied to the military commissariat [enlistment office] for payments totaling more than 13.6 million rubles [$177,200]. Abdullina was tried separately on charges of attempted fraud and was sentenced to two years on probation.
In 2025, Russia's Interior Ministry registered 2,472 terrorist attacks, a record high going back at least to 2003, as noted by Vyorstka. The figure more than doubled compared to 2024, and the total number of terrorist attacks in a single year nearly matched their combined total over the previous 20 years. A sharp increase in terrorism- and extremism-related crimes was also recorded, rising from 5,433 in 2024 to 8,161 in 2025, a 50 percent jump. The Interior Ministry classifies as terrorist attacks, among other things, arson at draft offices and relay cabinets, anti-war protests, and incidents related to combat operations during the war.
In Moscow, a foreign national born in 1996 was detained on suspicion of plotting to blow up power lines and a thermal power plant in the Moscow region. The man's citizenship has not been disclosed. According to law enforcement, he was acting on behalf of a "terrorist organization" linked to Ukrainian intelligence services, from which he received 15,000 rubles [$200]. Criminal cases have been opened against him for the acquisition and storage of explosives, as well as preparation for sabotage committed in a group.
In the Arkhangelsk region, law enforcement officers detained a 15-year-old boy on charges of preparing an act of sabotage and participating in the activities of a terrorist organization. According to investigators, since late 2025 he had been seeking people—allegedly for money and "on instructions from handlers" linked to an "international terrorist organization"—to set fire to transportation infrastructure facilities in the Onega district.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) also reported the detention of a resident of annexed Crimea in a case related to an attempted terrorist attack. According to law enforcement, a representative of the Armed Forces of Ukraine named Ivan Krinov contacted the man on Telegram, introduced himself as an FSB officer, and offered him a job with the agency. As a "test assignment," he instructed the man to bring a portable speaker into a local FSB building, claiming it would be used to listen in on employees "to identify traitors." In reality, the FSB says, the device contained a bomb. When the Crimean resident arrived at the FSB building’s checkpoint with the speaker, he was searched and detained. Law enforcement officials also claim that in August 2025, Krinov used a similar scheme to send a 54-year-old woman from the Volgograd region to the Crimean FSB office carrying an icon packed with explosives.
The Second Western District Military Court sentenced 36-year-old Chita resident Nikita Afanasyev to 25 years in prison on charges of aiding terrorist activities and mercenarism. Afanasyev had previously been sentenced in 2017 to 12.5 years in a maximum security penal colony for involvement with the Right Sector [coalition of right-wing Ukrainian organizations] and other offenses, and was due for release in December 2024. Shortly before that date, however, a new criminal case was opened against him. According to prosecutors, while serving his sentence at Penal Colony No. 8 in Chita, Afanasyev allegedly recruited other inmates to fight on Ukraine’s side, expressed "anti-government views," and provided instructions on how to contact Ukrainian handlers via Telegram. Investigators also cited a decade-old correspondence on the VKontakte social network in which Afanasyev allegedly called for a terrorist attack in Chita; the person he was communicating with turned out to be an FSB officer. The independent outlet Mediazona has published a detailed account of Afanasyev’s case, while SOTAvision has released excerpts from his courtroom statements.
The Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg sentenced an 18-year-old Tyumen resident to eight years in prison for committing a terrorist act and laundering money obtained through criminal activity. According to the court, the young man acted as part of a group in November 2024 and set fire to a relay cabinet between the Voynovka and Tyumen railway stations while he was still a minor. He then attempted to launder the cryptocurrency reward he received. The case against the other group members has been separated. In December 2024, two schoolboys, aged 13 and 14, were detained in connection with the case.
The Central District Military Court sentenced Ilya Migas, a 42-year-old Izhevsk resident, to 20 years in a maximum security penal colony for treason, preparing for sabotage, and participating in a terrorist organization. Although the trial was held behind closed doors, Mediazona learned that Migas was accused of acting on orders from the Freedom of Russia Legion in 2024 and of "aiding in the commission of an explosion, arson, or other actions" aimed at destroying a mobile traction substation at the Izhevsk railway station.
A "court" in annexed Simferopol ordered the arrest of Aleksandra Mangubi, a 28-year-old Crimean resident, on charges of treason. The specific charges against her remain unknown. She was detained on Nov. 2, 2024, and her relatives have had no information about her whereabouts or ability to contact her since then. In the fall of 2025, it was revealed that Mangubi was being held at the Simferopol pretrial detention center. According to former detainees, inmates at this center are kept in complete isolation and subjected to torture.
The Russia-installed "Kherson Regional Court" sentenced Ukrainian citizen Iryna Hedzyk to 10 years in a penal colony for espionage. According to the prosecution, from October 2023 to May 2024, Hedzyk collected information about the movements, locations and personnel of the Russian army and shared it with Ukrainian intelligence. In July 2024, Ukraine's Center for Journalistic Investigations reported that Russian military police had abducted Hedzyk from her apartment in Kakhovka.
Children and Militarization
A former participant in the war held a "patriotic event" at a school in the city of Vladimir. During the meeting, students recorded a video address to Apti Alaudinov, the commander of the Akhmat special forces unit, wishing him victories "over the enemies of Russia." There were no posts about the event on the school’s official social media accounts; photos and videos were published by Alaudinov himself. The footage shows children posing with an Akhmat flag, stepping on a U.S. flag, a Ukrainian Armed Forces uniform, and a Ukrainian flag bearing a symbol resembling a neo-pagan one.
Assistance
Russia’s Labor Ministry has prepared a draft resolution aimed at simplifying access to state support for war participants and their families. If adopted, employment centers would be able to obtain information on status and benefits directly through the Work in Russia platform, without the need for beneficiaries to submit documents in person. The platform is to be upgraded so it can automatically request data from other agencies and funds; currently, such information must be provided on paper. Authorities also plan to expand free retraining programs by adding a separate block of professions for war participants, including fields related to unmanned aerial vehicles.
Longreads
The Govorit NeMoskva [NonMoscow Is Speaking] Telegram channel examines what awaits war participants after they return to civilian life and those who live alongside them.
The Pervy Otdel [Department One] human rights project reports on the case against Polina Evtushenko, for whom prosecutors have recently sought an 18-year prison sentence.