Mobilization in Russia for Jan. 11-13, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
Nearly 45 percent of the decrees Vladimir Putin signed in 2025 remain classified; authorities withheld 449 of the 1,010 documents. While the share of secret orders rose 3.4 percentage points from 2024—when the state withheld 465 of 1,132 decrees—it remains below the highs of 2022 and 2023. In those years, classified files accounted for 45 percent and 49.5 percent of the total, respectively.
The State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly] passed a bill in its first reading establishing admission quotas at educational institutions for widows and widowers of participants in the war against Ukraine. The legislation allows them to enroll tuition-free in universities and colleges without entrance exams within the allocated quota, and to attend state-funded preparatory courses. These preferential admission benefits already apply to war participants themselves, law enforcement officers serving in the occupied territories of Ukraine, and their children, for whom institutions must reserve 10 percent of all state-funded places. In 2025, Russian universities admitted 28,383 individuals under the quota for war participants and their children, marking a 74.2 percent increase from the previous year.
Army Recruitment
Officials in the Samara region raised the sign-up bonus for concluding a contract with the Ministry of Defense from 400,000 rubles [$5,090] to 1.5 million rubles [$19,100] effective Jan. 1. Authorities promise more than 4 million rubles [$50,900] for the first year of service, employing a standard nationwide recruitment tactic of highlighting annualized totals. In the Irkutsk region, for example, recruiters promise contract soldiers 5.32 million rubles [$67,700] for the first year.
The Samara region, along with seven other regions of the Volga Federal District, significantly reduced the size of enlistment bonuses at the end of last year—before the cut, the payment in the region amounted to 2.1 million rubles [$26,700]. With the start of the new year, authorities in several regions announced the return of increased payments, including the Samara region, the Saratov region, as well as Russia's constituent republics of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan and Mari El. In none of these cases—except for Bashkortostan—did the bonuses raised from the new year reach the level that had been in effect before the reduction.
In the Irkutsk region, the sign-up bonus for conscripts who decide to sign a contract has been increased to up to 1.5 million rubles [$19,100]. According to the governor’s decree, these bonuses are valid until Jan. 31. Earlier, in the Irkutsk region, the sign-up bonus for signing a contract for those not currently serving in the military was increased from 1 million rubles [$12,700] to 2.4 million rubles [$30,600].
In the Karmaskalinsky district of Bashkortostan, the municipal payment for signing a contract with the MoD has been canceled. Before this decision, mobilized men and conscripts could receive 300,000 rubles [$3,820] if they signed a contract. At the same time, the district’s 2026 budget allocates 5 million rubles [$63,700] for social support of servicemen.
Over the weekend, the Sakhalin military enlistment office set up a mobile recruitment point for contract soldiers at a popular ice-fishing spot on Lake Izmenchivoye. Fishermen were handed out brochures about contract military service and were also treated to soldiers’ porridge.
The Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] Telegram channel reports another mass distribution of notifications about changes to records in Russia’s Unified Military Register. Similar notifications were sent out in August, October and in early and late December. The notice merely informs recipients that their data have been updated and does not constitute an electronic draft notice.
In Moscow, district military commissariats have been abolished and merged along administrative-district lines. For example, all districts in the Southwestern Administrative District are now served by a single military commissariat. While conscription functions have been transferred to the Unified Military Recruitment Center, military registration and deregistration remain the responsibility of the commissariats. As a result, district-level offices may face increased workloads, as the number of people subject to military service has grown while staffing levels have remained unchanged.
Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts
The independent outlet Lyudi Baikala [People of Baikal] reported the death in the war of 18-year-old Andrey Kholyamoev, a member of the Tofalar people, one of Russia’s small Indigenous ethnic groups. Shortly after turning 18, on Aug. 2, 2025, Kholyamoev voluntarily signed a contract. He was assigned to an assault company and was killed on Sept. 21, at the age of 18 years and 49 days. According to research data, the Tofalar population numbered 663 people in 2015, including just 69 children aged five to nine.
Relatives of soldiers from the 143rd Regiment of the 127th Motorized Rifle Division have reported numerous incidents of abuse and torture against soldiers. Local lawyer Maksim Chikhunov has published numerous similar complaints. Soldiers declared AWOL, as well as disabled servicemen and combat veterans in need of medical treatment, including amputees, are held for extended periods in locked cages at the military unit’s home base in the village of Sergeyevka, Ussuriysk region. There, they are restrained, physically assaulted and subjected to humiliation. For any noncompliance, they are deployed to combat zones, regardless of medical restrictions. Victims have reported that servicemen have been raped with sex toys and threatened with death if they do not hand over their payments. One soldier who attempted to document these crimes was almost shot; another soldier intervened by removing the bullets from the commander's pistol. The man is now facing imminent execution and had to flee the unit for his own safety. On Jan. 9, Chikhunov stated that large-scale inspections had begun following public exposure. However, he later clarified that he continues to receive similar complaints. According to relatives, soldiers are transferred between units to prevent them from testifying during inspections.
In Birobidzhan, a military court sentenced 25-year-old contract soldier Vadim Votintsev to 11 years in a maximum security penal colony for desertion and home invasion robbery. Votintsev, who had previously participated in combat, had been assigned to a collection point for deserters and was being prepared for deployment to the frontline before he escaped. After leaving his unit, Votintsev was drinking alcohol in a dormitory and, together with a drinking companion, decided to commit a robbery in the same building. The soldier and his accomplice broke into a man's apartment and began beating him. When another man approached the victim's apartment after hearing the commotion, the accomplice forced him inside, and Votintsev repeatedly struck him in the head until he lost consciousness. Both victims were robbed. Votintsev had previous criminal convictions.
The Chelyabinsk Garrison Military Court sentenced two servicemen to one and a half years in a penal settlement for going AWOL. After signing contracts and receiving their due payments, the recruits left their unit in September 2025 and headed to Chelyabinsk, where they spent time at "entertainment venues." Both were supposed to return to duty on September 15 but failed to do so.
The Southern District Military Court sentenced Dmitry Chibukov, a Ukrainian serviceman from the Azov Brigade, to 18 years in prison for participating in a terrorist organization and terrorist training. In February 2024, Chibukov, along with other Ukrainian POWs, had already been sentenced to 25 years in a penal colony for attacks on villages in the "DPR." Taking both sentences into account, Chibukov is to serve a total of 29 years in prison.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) reported the detention in the town of Chusovoy in the Perm region [Russia’s federal subject] of a man suspected of preparing an act of terror at a railway bridge. According to investigators, the detained Russian citizen, born in 1972, became a victim of phone scammers and transferred 350,000 rubles [$4,460] to them. Subsequently, the perpetrators, posing as law enforcement officers, persuaded him to manufacture an explosive device under the pretext of assisting in the return of the money. It is claimed that this concerned a "test of the anti-terrorist security" of regional transportation infrastructure facilities. During a search of the detainee’s home, about 10 kilograms of explosives, components for manufacturing explosive devices and a webcam for monitoring a railway bridge were found. The man was placed in pre-trial detention. A criminal case has been opened under the article on illegal arms trafficking, and additional charges are being considered for preparing a terrorist act and illegal manufacture of explosive devices. According to the FSB, the attack was planned by Ukrainian intelligence services.
The FSB also detained a teenager who allegedly collected data for Ukrainian intelligence on the locations of units of the Russian army in occupied the city of Mariupol. A criminal case on treason has been initiated.
A court in Kaliningrad has begun hearing the case of 42-year-old Moscow resident Aleksandr Mitusov, who is charged with what authorities describe as "confidential cooperation with foreigners." The specific allegations against him have not been disclosed. The criminal case against Mitusov was likely opened in April or May 2025. Before that, he was subjected to a series of so-called "carousel" arrests on petty hooliganism charges, reportedly for allegedly using profanity in public.
The Arkhangelsk Regional Court has begun hearing a treason case against a local resident believed to be 38-year-old Oleg Larionov, the head of the legal firm Just LLC. According to the FSB, the law firm’s director, driven by what investigators described as "hostility toward state authority and the socio-political and constitutional system of the Russian Federation," passed information in May and July 2024 to the Armed Forces of Ukraine about the locations of military units in the Arkhangelsk region. The Memorial Human Rights Defense Center reported that Larionov was detained on March 31, 2025.
A court has sentenced Georgian far-right activist Aleksandr Sakaniya to 19 years in prison on charges of participating in an illegal armed group and a terrorist organization, as well as aiding terrorist activities. According to law enforcement officials, from August 2022 through December 2023, the 30-year-old Sakaniya, while in Georgia, acted on instructions from the leadership of the Russian Volunteer Corps, recruiting candidates and screening them for admission to the unit. The Ostorozhno, Novosti [Beware the News] Telegram channel reported that Sakaniya flew to Russia on March 27, 2024. He was initially detained on a petty hooliganism charge but was never released and was later arrested in connection with a criminal case.
A military court in Yekaterinburg has ordered compulsory psychiatric treatment for 28‑year‑old Ufa resident Vadim Kildiyarov in a case involving arson attacks on relay cabinets and a draft office. Kildiyarov was accused of undergoing training for sabotage and terrorism, participating in a terrorist organization, carrying out three episodes of sabotage, committing a terrorist attack and manufacturing and selling weapons. He had been held in pre‑trial detention since Dec. 7, 2023, before being transferred to a psychiatric hospital. Relatives said that after losing his job following the start of the war, Kildiyarov admitted he had joined the Freedom of Russia Legion and was carrying out its tasks. Investigators allege that in August 2023 he set fire to a relay cabinet between the Chernikovka and Shaksha stations, two transformer cooling cabinets in Ufa, and planted a bomb in the draft office of Ufa’s Demsky district. He also allegedly planned to set fire to the Government House and the State Assembly building.
Assistance
Colonel Sergey Karasyov, 43, has been appointed deputy mayor of Samara, despite being accused of the execution of a civilian in Irpin and of beating an elderly woman born in 1949 with a rifle butt. Russian officials said he "will successfully address tasks related to supporting fighters, veterans of the special military operation, and their families." Karasyov previously commanded the 31st Separate Air Assault Brigade and took part in the occupation of the Kyiv region. He was named by The Sunday Times among 13 Russian officers suspected of committing war crimes in Bucha.
Longreads
The Sever.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet reports on who deserts from the Russian army and why, how desertion is being suppressed, and what happens to those who decide to flee.