Mobilization in Russia for Feb. 13-16, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary

Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising

the Voronezh region, authorities announced they would double the payment to "public assistants to the army" who recruit contract soldiers for military service, raising it from 75,000 rubles [$820], which was set in November 2024, to 150,000 rubles [$1,650].

Also in that region, law enforcement officers raided construction sites and public dining establishments in the town of Boguchar, checking 23 recently naturalized Russian citizens in the process. They escorted two individuals—who had not registered for military service—to the draft office. Reports indicate that between Feb. 4 and 14, officials added 36 "new" citizens to the military rolls and two of them signed contracts to serve in the army.

Another similar raid took place in the Chelyabinsk region, where police officers and draft office staff teamed up with OMON riot police in Korkino to file 25 misdemeanor charges and add three individuals to the military register.

The former deputy mayor of Pechora, Andrey Kanishchev, signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense and intends to fight in the war against Ukraine. He wrote a petition to suspend the criminal proceedings against him, but the authorities have not considered it yet. Kanishchev remains in a pre-trial detention center along with former Pechora mayor, Valery Serov, as investigators suspect both men of accepting an exceptionally large bribe. Kanishchev had already been under arrest for a separate incident predating the bribery accusations. In February 2024, a court sentenced him to 10 years in a penal colony for intentionally causing grievous bodily harm resulting in the death of a victim through negligence.

Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers

Based on open sources, Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] and BBC News Russian, together with volunteers, have verified the names of 93,641 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine, including 10,696 mobilized soldiers. Over the past ten days, the list has grown by 2,582 soldiers, 207 of whom were mobilized.

Additionally, Mediazona has geolocated a video showing wounded soldiers from the 503rd Motorized Rifle Regiment being dragged into a truck for deployment to the frontline. Mediazona compared footage from the video and satellite images, and concluded that it was filmed at the Kadamovsky training range in the Rostov region.

Commanders killed Russian servicemen who witnessed their crimes, the mother of one of the killed told the Astra Telegram channel. In August 2024, Astra reported that servicemen from several regiments of the 47th Guards Tank Division complained that they were being paid significantly less than promised. Payments were often delayed or not made at all. According to the soldiers, commanders deliberately waited for soldiers to "survive" on the frontline for six months. The servicemen also complained of high casualty rates and of being sent back into assaults while still untreated. Now, the mother of one of these soldiers has contacted journalists. She stated that on July 26, her son, 24-year-old Shakhzod Jonov, was killed by his own commanders. The soldier’s death was only recently confirmed. Along with Jonov, Aleksey Plyukhin, who had also complained about the commanders, was killed. The reason for killing the soldiers was that they had witnessed the "purchase" of evacuations and medical leave. Jonov’s mother was demanded to pay 3 million rubles [$32,900] for his evacuation to a hospital. According to her, the commanders took the money but did not send her son to the hospital, instead leaving him at the forward positions instead. In early February, the relatives of the killed learned that the killers had allegedly been arrested. The woman named the commanders involved in Jonov’s murder. One of them had previously been sentenced in March 2023 to one year and six months’ probation for going AWOL.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

In the city of Rostov-on-Don, authorities are searching for serviceman Sergey K., who deserted his unit. The man had signed a contract with the MoD while in a pre-trial detention center. The specific charges he faced before signing the contract have not been disclosed. After being released from custody, he fled. According to a Telegram channel, the fugitive's full name is Sergey Kirillov, 49. The military police are currently searching for him. There have been no official comments from the region's law enforcement agencies.

A criminal case for murder and attempted murder has been opened against a mobilized man from Karachay-Cherkessia [Russia’s constituent republic], Renat Sakiev. In November last year, Sakiev, a serviceman of the 34th Motorized Rifle Brigade, returned to Karachay-Cherkessia on leave after being wounded. During a conflict, he ran over an acquaintance with an SUV, nearly hitting another local resident standing nearby. Sakiev fled the scene but was arrested a few days later and placed in a pre-trial detention center. Sakiev had previously been convicted twice for theft. According to a court ruling extending his detention, he was mobilized in March 2023.

A court in the Rostov region found seven servicemen guilty of failure to obey orders after they refused to deploy to the war against Ukraine in the summer and fall of 2024. Each was sentenced to two years and two months in a penal settlement.

In Angarsk, Irkutsk region, two teenagers born in 2007 and 2009 were detained on suspicion of attempting to set fire to military vehicles. According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), in January 2025, they threw bottles filled with incendiary liquid onto the local military unit base. No equipment or personnel were harmed. The FSB claims the teenagers also planned to target other military and transport facilities and allegedly communicated with Ukrainian intelligence services via a messaging app. One of the suspects stated they were promised $300 for the arson but were never paid. A criminal case has been opened on charges of conspiring and committing an act of terror in a group. The teenagers have been remanded in a pre-trial detention center.

In the Nizhny Novgorod region, two schoolchildren aged 15 and 16 weredetained on suspicion ofsetting fire to a relay cabinet on the stretch between Pizhma and Tonshaevo railway stations on Feb. 13. The fire was quickly extinguished and did not affect the traffic. According to the Investigative Committee, the suspects were detained shortly after the incident. The teenagers are being prosecuted under the article of terrorist attack committed in a group in conspiracy.

In Krasnoufimsk, two teenagers have been added to the list of extremists and terrorists; Kirill Blokhin, who turned 14 last December, and 17-year-old Alexander Kruchinin. Blokhin is believed to be the youngest person on this list. Inclusion on the list may be related to the case of arson of a relay cabinet on the railroad near Krasnoufimsk. In January, investigatorsreported the detention of a group of teenagers who agreed to commit the arson for a reward of 10,000 rubles [$110]. A criminal case was opened against them for a terrorist attack committed in a group in conspiracy.

In Komsomolsk-on-Amur, authorities have arrested a local resident on suspicion of treason. The man allegedly provided Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence with information about the operations of a defense enterprise, according to the local FSB. The details of the case and the identity of the detainee remain undisclosed.

A military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced 34-year-old Anastasia Todurova, a resident of the occupied Mariupol region, to 14 years in a penal colony. She was convicted on charges of treason, act of terror, participation in a terrorist organization, and illegal trafficking of explosives. The specifics of her arrest remain unclear. The case reached the court on Oct.10, 2024. Todurova was placed on the list of "extremists and terrorists" on April 24, 2023. The Memorial Human Rights Center Support Program for Political Prisoners reported that Todurova has four minor children.

A court in Kostroma sentenced 36-year-old businessman Nikolay Malkerov to four years in a penal colony on charges of cooperating on a confidential basis with a foreign state. According to investigators, in the spring of 2024, Malkerov became interested in the activities of the Freedom of Russia Legion and attempted to fill out an application on the organization’s website. In April of that year, he allegedly began communicating via Telegram with a "handler" who asked him to gather information about a certain facility in the Yaroslavl region. The alleged "crime" was reportedly thwarted in time thanks to the "prompt actions" of FSB officers.

A municipal archive employee from the administration of the Nikolayevsky district of the Khabarovsk region, Artyom Primak, who was previously under investigation for "calls to extremist activity" over his online statements about Russian soldiers, was found dead "after falling from the ninth floor." In 2023, Primak posted several comments online, including calls for the destruction of soldiers involved in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Later, law enforcement officers forced him to apologize on camera. The circumstances of his fall have not been disclosed.

Assistance

In the Irkutsk region, more than 2,700 children of soldiers involved in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine receive free school meals, according to the regional Minister of Social Development, Guardianship, and Custodianship, Vladimir Rodionov. The benefit applies to children of mobilized soldiers, volunteer fighters, and contract soldiers, as well as those whose parents were killed or severely injured in combat. The region's total population is 2.37 million.

Children and Educational System

More than 190 Russian schools have been named after participants in the war with Ukraine, according to Vladimir Kiknadze, deputy director of the Department of State Policy in the Field of Upbringing at the Ministry of Education. He stated that, in total, more than 10,000 schools now bear the names of the Defenders of the Fatherland.

In the Tambov region, a war participant visited the Raduga kindergarten, where he showed the children his awards and equipment and demonstrated how to apply a tourniquet to stop bleeding. According to media reports, the soldier's face was blurred in all photographs, while the children's faces were not.

Longreads

The Crimea.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet reported on the militarization of school education in Crimea. Students on the Russian-occupied peninsula are being involved in the production of camouflage nets and UAV components for Russian soldiers.

Meduza [international Russian-language online media outlet] published an article on how Russian authorities is reforming legislation to make it easier to expand the list of "extremists."