Mobilization in Russia for Feb. 27-March 2, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary

Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising

In the Murmansk region, a court in the town of Kovdor has sentenced a previously convicted former Wagner Group mercenary to two years and eight months in prison. The convict signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense immediately after the sentence was announced. The man was accused of nine episodes of property theft committed since September 2023.

Mobilized Soldiers and Volunteer Fighters

Based on open sources, Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] and BBC News Russian, together with volunteers, have verified the names of 95,994 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine, including 10,887 mobilized soldiers. Over the past week, the list has grown by 968 soldiers.

Mediazona has also geolocated the video featuring servicemen on crutches and in a wheelchair—still recovering—being taken for deployment to forward positions. As the author stated, the video was filmed in the village of Kalinovskaya in Russia’s constituent Republic of Chechnya, where the 71st Motorized Rifle Regiment is stationed.

Military police transferred around 150 servicemen—who had declined to return to the frontline—from a tent camp 20 kilometers from Koltsovo Airport in Yekaterinburg, where they had been forcibly held, to Rostov-on-Don. These men came from a number of military units, including 35390, 31134, 01005, 01007, 41867, 95378 and 16544. Authorities had charged them with going AWOL after they refused to continue fighting because of unhealed injuries and "expired contracts." They had been awaiting preliminary investigations and court proceedings in the military commandant’s office in Chebarkul, Chelyabinsk region, but on Feb. 28, officials forcibly put them on buses and transported them to the tent camp near Yekaterinburg. Some men traveled with crutches or post-surgery external fixation devices. Upon arrival, they attempted to file formal discharge requests and summon investigators, stating they would rather face prison than return to war. Officials instead tried to send them to Ukraine via Rostov-on-Don, but the group "staged a mutiny." Afterward, relatives lost contact with them. Later accounts confirmed that authorities ultimately forced the servicemen onto a plane, flew them to Rostov, confiscated their phones, loaded them onto buses and took them to the "LPR."

In November 2024, military authorities returned Aleksander S. to the front, despite doctors’ directives that he urgently needed surgery. The 25-year-old soldier had an improperly healed fracture and shrapnel in his arm. He has not been heard from since.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

A court in the city of Magadan has sent local resident Aleksey Klushin to a pre-trial detention center for the murder of his mother, Svetlana, after he returned from the war. According to media reports, the murder took place on Feb. 23 in the village of Sokol. Klushin had recently come home with a leg injury after serving as a volunteer fighter. The cause of the conflict with his mother has not been disclosed. Residents of the village stated that there was "not a single intact spot" left on the victim’s body, and she will be buried in a closed casket. Based on social media information, Svetlana Klushina was 60 years old at the time of her murder, while her son is 35.

In the Zabaykalsky region [Russia's federal subject], 32-year-old Sanan Huseynov, accused of murdering his ex-wife, has reportedly escaped from a military unit. Earlier, a district court suspended proceedings in his case after he signed a contract with the MoD. In the fall of 2024, Huseynov ambushed his former wife, Yekaterina, and shot her about 12 times with a modified traumatic pistol. After the court's decision, local residents published a petition demanding that the murderer not be sent to war. Now, they fear his return. According to media reports, police are not searching for the fugitive.

In the city of Kaliningrad, 42-year-old soldier Aleksandr Linkov, who had returned from the war, called the local Vodokanal [utilities company] office from his military unit in the town of Baltiysk, threatening to visit them with a grenade. He cited an excessively high water bill as the reason for his threats. Law enforcement officers searched the building but found no explosive devices. Now, the Investigative Committee is handling the incident.

The courts of the Southern Military District ruled on cases against contract soldiers accused of going AWOL from their units.

• Yury Luchshiy, who failed to return to his military unit in October 2023 and only turned himself in to a police station the following April, was sentenced to five and a half years in a penal colony. His lawyer stated that Luchshiy had never signed a contract or received payments for participation in combat, yet he spent eight months on the frontline, where he suffered a concussion and developed several illnesses.
• Vladislav Beteyev was also sentenced to five and a half years in a penal colony. He had been serving under a military contract since February 2023 but left his unit in August of that year and remained home until October, when he voluntarily turned himself in at the commandant’s office.
• Contract soldiers Abdula Zhamantikov and Dmitry Shumkin received the same sentence. Zhamantikov deserted his unit twice before being detained by police. Shumkin signed a contract in August 2023 but remained at home in January 2024 and failed to report back to his unit.
• Georgy Bitadze was sentenced to five years and three months in a penal colony. In court, he argued that his contract had expired before the announcement of mobilization in Russia, leading him to believe he was eligible for discharge from military service.

Early in the morning on March 2, a woman born in 1978 set fire to a Sberbank branch in central Perm. A criminal case has been opened against her, though the specific charges have not been disclosed.

The Smolensk Regional Court has sentenced a local resident to 12.5 years in a maximum-security penal colony for sabotage after he set fire to two power transformers following instructions from scammers. According to investigators, in the summer of 2024, scammers deceived the defendant and stole 2.75 million rubles [$31,100] from him. They then promised to return the money if he set fire to transformers at the Smolensk-2 substation. The convict, a 45-year-old native of the Kholm-Zhirkovsky district, was identified by Mediazona, which analyzed the list of "extremists and terrorists" maintained by the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of Russia (Rosfinmonitoring). His name is Aleksandr Moiseyev, and he is originally from the village of Bogolyubovo. He was added to the list on June 17, 2024, and his case was submitted to the court in November.

A court in Kolomna has sentenced Maksim Nefyodov to two years and six months in a penal colony for deliberate destruction or damage to property by arson. According to investigators, in July 2024, the 42-year-old Nefyodov received an offer from an unknown person who promised payment for setting police cars on fire in Kolomna and required him to livestream the act. Nefyodov entered the police station premises, poured gasoline on one car and set it on fire. The flames later spread to two nearby vehicles, causing damage estimated at 1.8 million rubles [$20,400]. He attempted to flee but was detained on a commuter train en route to Moscow. According to media reports, Nefyodov pleaded guilty, believing he was following orders from someone he thought was a law enforcement officer and that "he was acting in his country’s interest."

The Krasnodar Regional Court has sentenced suspects accused of setting fire to a relay cabinet on a railway near the village of Noris in December 2023. Arsen Shaginyan and Arkady Kerselyan were found guilty of arson and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Agop Manukyan received a nine-year sentence for attempted arson.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) has reported the arrest of Russian citizen Nikita Ivankovich and Ukrainian citizen Denis Popovich, who were allegedly planning to assassinate Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov), the head of the Crimea Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church [also known as "Putin's Confessor"]. Popovich served as Shevkunov's assistant, while Ivankovich was an altar server at a church in Sokolniki, Moscow. According to the FSB, the detainees were recruited by the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. The suspects claim they were supposed to plant a bomb in "Shevkunov's living quarters" at Sretensky Monastery. According to the Agentstvo [Agency] independent media outlet, Metropolitan Tikhon was in Moscow at the time of the alleged assassination attempt. The detainees allegedly had an improvised explosive device and two fake Ukrainian passports. Popovich was detained on Jan. 13 and was initially charged with a misdemeanor before being placed under "carousel" arrest. Ivankovich was detained on Feb. 15, and a search was conducted at his home. After that, both men became suspects in an attempted act of terror and the illegal acquisition of explosives or explosive devices. On Feb. 15, the Christians Against the War group published a post about their detention. The post's author stated that reports against them had been filed in the Bishop Lucifer Telegram channel as early as 2022. Based on these posts, Popovich and Ivankovich held anti-war views.

The Central District Military Court has sentenced former United Russia [Putin’s ruling party] deputy Daniil Akimov to 15 years in a maximum-security penal colony on charges of an act of terror and attempted creation of an armed formation for setting fire to a draft office in the village of Ivanteyevka on the night of Dec. 23, 2022. As a result of the fire, one of the offices was severely damaged, but the fire was extinguished before it could spread to other areas. Initially, Akimov was charged with the lesser offense of deliberate destruction of another's property, but it was later reclassified. The reason for the charge of creating an armed formation remains unknown.

Children and Educational System

In 2024, Russian prosecutors filed nearly 200 lawsuits against schools, demanding they equip classrooms for lessons on Life Safety Fundamentals and Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland, according to the Vyorstka media outlet. Most schools lack the funds to purchase the necessary equipment, forcing them to cut back on textbooks or request additional contributions from parents.

The "Golden Autumn" children’s shelter in Nizhny Tagil invited former Wagner Group mercenary Ivan Pautov to a celebration. A man with the same full name has multiple convictions for robbery, arms trafficking and drug offenses.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, Governor of Belgorod region, supported allowing minors to join local territorial defense forces. Gladkov promised assistance to a 16-year-old who asked him about the possibility of enlisting in the territorial defense.

Miscellaneous

The government of Buryatia [Russia's constituent republic] announced that, as part of the "Patriots of Buryatia" program, war veterans will receive training for service in regional government agencies at Buryat State University. A similar program, "Heroes of the Baikal Region," was recently launched in Irkutsk. Meanwhile, in the Omsk region, under the direction of Governor Vitaly Khotsenko, registration has begun for the "PROmotion of Heroes" program. Organizers aim to select up to 75 finalists who, starting in August 2025, will join a professional retraining program to enhance their management skills.

Fifty-six war veterans have been appointed as officials in the Irkutsk region, Governor Igor Kobzev reported during a meeting with Putin.

Of the 15 candidates running for mayor of Magadan, two are "veterans of the special military operation." Among them are Yevgeny Anisimov, director of the "Financial and Economic Center of the Department of Education of the Mayor’s Office," who has been participating in the invasion of Ukraine since being mobilized in 2022, and entrepreneur Mikhail Chernyshov, who fought as part of the Wagner Group. The election for the head of Magadan is not a direct vote; candidates are selected and screened by a commission from the city administration.

Denis Tadyshev, a 25-year-old mobilized soldier, won the election for the head of his home village in the Altai region while on leave. He will be discharged from military service and will be able to return home. Tadyshev is currently in Donetsk, and upon his return to the Altai region, he must register with the draft office.

Longreads

The Window [Okno] project sheds light on how Russian conscripts are being killed in the Kursk region.

Novaya Gazeta Europe [the European edition of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta] tells the story of Ukrainian priest Kostiantyn Maksymov, who was sentenced to 14 years for espionage and transferred from the occupied Zaporizhzhia region to a penal colony in Saratov. He had previously refused to comply with the Moscow Patriarchate.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has reported on how denunciations have become a common practice in Russian schools since the start of the war, as well as on teachers with anti-war positions who have become victims of such denunciations.