Mobilization in Russia for Jan. 13-15, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
Russia’s Ministry of Education and Science has revised the distribution rules for state-funded places among quota applicants. Unfilled spots originally designated for applicants for targeted training, orphans and disabled individuals will now be reallocated to a separate quota for war participants, their families and the children of medical workers who died during the Covid-19 pandemic, rather than reverting to the general applicant pool. The independent media outlet Agentstvo [Agency] calculated that if this new enrollment order had applied in 2025, the number of spots available to war participants and their relatives would have surged from roughly 50,000 to 118,800. This figure would have represented nearly one in four of the approximately 580,000 state-funded places, though universities ultimately enrolled only 28,383 people under the war participant quota that year.
Army Recruitment
In Russia’s constituent Republic of Chuvashia, authorities increased payments for signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense more than fivefold, from 400,000 to 2.1 million rubles [from $5,100 to $26,800], effectively restoring the rate offered before a reduction in October 2025. The increased sign-up bonus currently applies to contracts signed between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2026.
Officials in the Orenburg region also raised the sign-up bonus to 1 million rubles [$12,700], reversing a cut in late October 2025 that had lowered the amount from 2 million to 400,000 rubles [from $25,500 to $5,100].
Chuvashia and the Orenburg region, alongside six other areas in the Volga Federal District, significantly cut sign-up bonuses late last year. At the start of the year, officials in the Samara and Saratov regions, as well as the republics of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan and Mari El, joined Chuvashia and the Orenburg region in announcing a return to higher one-time payments, but only Bashkortostan and Chuvashia restored bonuses to pre-reduction levels. The Ulyanovsk region remains the only territory that has not reported an increase in sign-up bonuses since the start of the year.
The Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] Telegram channel reports that automatic initial military registration without personal appearance has begun to be used not only in Moscow, but also in other regions, including Saint Petersburg and Krasnoyarsk. Information on pre-conscription youths, including those aged 16-17, is entered into the system by draft offices automatically, and personal files are created without the participation of the teenagers themselves. A medical evaluation board and the determination of a service fitness category are not conducted at this stage and are postponed until the age of 18, meaning that health data is effectively not taken into account during initial registration.
BBC reported on the recruitment of residents of Middle Eastern and African countries into the Russian army. Investigators found that 40-year-old former schoolteacher Polina Azarnykh used a Telegram channel to recruit young men, primarily from poor countries, to serve in the Russian Armed Forces. According to one of the recruits, the recruiter met him and several others at the airport and took them to an enlistment center in the Bryansk region. There, the men were offered one-year contracts with a monthly salary of $2,500 and a sign-up bonus of $5,000. The contracts were written in Russian, a language the men did not understand. Azarnykh took their passports, allegedly to arrange Russian citizenship, and also promised that they could avoid participation in combat if they paid her $3,000 from their earnings. Despite these promises, one of the men was sent to the frontline after just ten days of training. Journalists identified nearly 500 such cases. Those recruited were mainly citizens of Syria, Egypt, Yemen, as well as Morocco, Iraq, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria.
In the city of Tyumen, on Jan. 15, law enforcement officers conducted a raid to identify violations, during which eight naturalized foreign nationals who had not registered for military service were detained. They were taken to a draft office to undergo a medical evaluation board.
Russia’s Gosuslugi public services portal has sent users a mass email offering training at the Putin Russian Special Forces University in Chechnya [Russia’s constituent republic]. The message invites recipients to "join the elite of the Russian Armed Forces," acquire a "new in-demand profession" and "help your country." Those interested are promised the option of signing a four-month contract without automatic renewal.
Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts
The Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] Telegram channel reported on a case in which a serviceman managed to secure a one-time compensation payment of 3 million rubles [$38,200] for combat injuries despite lacking the required paperwork. The 30-year-old contract soldier suffered wounds to both legs in September 2024 and was evacuated to a hospital in Russia’s Belgorod region. During the evacuation, he was not issued an injury certificate (Form No. 100), which complicated his ability to receive compensation. However, after medical records were obtained from a civilian hospital, witnesses to the injury were questioned, and a complaint was filed with the Military Prosecutor’s Office along with a lawsuit against the MoD, the funds were transferred to the serviceman within a few days.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
In 2025, Russia recorded 627,900 grave and especially grave crimes, according to calculations by the Vyorstka media outlet. This was the highest figure in the past 15 years. The number of such crimes has risen for the third consecutive year, although the pace of growth has slowed: up 9.7% in 2023, 4.8% in 2024, and 1.7% in 2025. The sharpest increases were recorded in Russia’s Far East and in the Republic of Dagestan. At the same time, the overall number of registered crimes fell by 7.3% to 1.77 million, the lowest level over the same period. Experts attribute the divergence between the two indicators to the growth of cybercrime and changes in the structure of criminal statistics.
In Novosibirsk, a military court has sentenced Elmadin Faradzhli, a previously convicted contract soldier, to 13 years in a penal colony. Faradzhli, who strangled a Berdsk resident in August 2024, had signed a contract with the MoD earlier that year but fled from a training ground where he had been undergoing training for deployment to the war. On Aug. 4, Faradzhli visited his female partner, and during an argument, he strangled her and then set her body on fire.
In the Zabaykalsky region [Russia's federal subject], a court in Chita has remanded a previously convicted 28-year-old serviceman in custody for two months in connection with a murder case. According to investigators, on the morning of Jan. 11, he fatally stabbed a 34-year-old Chita resident during a conflict. The suspect was detained in a private house on the outskirts of the city, where a knife, presumably used in the murder, was found in the stove. It is known that in 2022, he was released from his previous imprisonment and deployed to the war in Ukraine as part of the Wagner Group.
The 2nd Western District Military Court has sentenced Roman Vorobyov, a 23-year-old junior sergeant from the Altai region [Russia’s federal subject], to 17 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of treason. He was also stripped of his rank and awards. According to the prosecution, in May 2024, the soldier decided to defect to Ukraine due to "dissatisfaction with the conduct of the special military operation and unwillingness to participate in it." He reportedly collected information for several months on the location of Russian temporary bases and military equipment in the Belgorod and Kharkiv regions, which he then passed on to Ukrainian intelligence services.
The Southern District Military Court has sentenced Ukrainian prisoner of war Dmytro Popovych, a member of the Azov Brigade, to 18 years in prison on charges of participating in a terrorist community and undergoing training for terrorism. Prosecutors said Popovych served as a grenade launcher operator in the Azov Brigade, which Russia designates as a "terrorist organization." He had previously been sentenced by a "DPR court" to 28 years in a penal colony in a separate case involving the alleged killing of civilians in Mariupol. Investigators claim he ordered subordinates to open fire on three people walking down a street, killing two. With partial concurrent service of the sentences, the court set his final punishment at 29.5 years in a maximum security penal colony.
In Bashkortostan [Russia's constituent republic], authorities have opened a criminal case for attempted sabotage against a 22‑year‑old student from Ufa. According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), the student corresponded on Telegram with an unidentified person who offered him $290 [23,000 rubles] to set fire to a transformer substation and record the arson on video. He was detained before the attack could be carried out. Investigators say tools and substances for arson were seized during a search. In a video released by the FSB, the detainee stated that he was acting on instructions from Ukrainian intelligence services.
The 2nd Western District Military Court has opened the trial of Russian citizen Nikita Afanasyev, who was previously convicted in 2017 in a case involving attempted murder and alleged participation in the Right Sector nationalist group. He now faces new charges of aiding terrorist activity and mercenarism. Prosecutors claim that while serving his sentence in a penal colony in Chita, Afanasyev recruited fellow inmates to join the AFU, voiced "anti‑government views," and gave instructions on how to contact Ukrainian handlers via Telegram. Witness testimonies presented to the court were described as nearly identical. Afanasyev told the court that he signed a confession under pressure from the FSB but refused to incriminate Ukraine, after which he was re‑arrested.
The FSB announced the detention of a 59-year-old woman suspected of attempting to acquire explosives. Investigators also intend to charge her with attempted terrorist attack and treason. According to law enforcement, the woman was recruited by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), underwent training in Ukraine, and, upon returning to Russia, attempted to retrieve a Makarov pistol and an improvised explosive device from a cache in the Smolensk region. The alleged purpose was to assassinate an unnamed employee of Russia’s defense industry in the Leningrad region. In an FSB-released video, the woman states that she traveled to Ukraine in 2018 "for ideological reasons."
The Tomsk Regional Court has sentenced a minor to eight and a half years in prison for treason, committing sabotage and aiding sabotage activities. According to the FSB, the convicted individual carried out sabotage and terrorist acts against communications facilities in the Tomsk region.
The Krasnodar Regional Court has sentenced Ukrainian citizen Ihor Borisenko to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of attempted sabotage and the manufacture and transportation of explosive devices. According to the FSB, in September 2024, Borisenko planted improvised explosive devices on diesel fuel tank cars of two trains near the Zeletsino station outside Kstovo, where a Lukoil oil refinery is located. The devices were discovered at the Tuapse-Sortirovochnaya and Yaroslavl-Glavny stations, and no explosions occurred. Investigators claim that Borisenko picked up components for the explosive devices in Moscow and assembled them in Nizhny Novgorod.
The Smolensk Regional Court has sentenced 33-year-old citizen of Moldova and Romania Georgy Maroglo to 11 years in a maximum security penal colony. He was accused of providing "assistance to the enemy in activities deliberately directed against the security" of Russia. This is the first known sentence handed down under this article, which was introduced to the Russian Criminal Code at the end of 2024. Maroglo was also charged with the attempted smuggling of poisonous or explosive substances, weapons or equipment, technologies and scientific or technical information. The case was classified, and Maroglo declined to appeal the verdict.
The Second Western District Military Court has sentenced 25-year-old Sakhalin region resident Daniil Kanonovich to 14 years of imprisonment in a case related to an attempt on high treason and a charge with participation in a terrorist organization. According to prosecutors, the defendant intended to enter Ukraine to join the Freedom of Russia Legion, but was detained at the border in the Krasnoyaruzhsky district of the Belgorod region.
Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, reported that 159 teenagers have been detained in Russia over the past three years for sabotage and acts of terror targeting transport infrastructure.
According to Russia’s Investigative Committee, the number of transportation-related acts of sabotage in the Ural region has risen, including incidents involving minors. In 2025, authorities recorded 19 such crimes, compared with 14 in 2024 and six in 2023. Over the past year, seven criminal cases involving terrorist acts were sent to court, with 16 minors listed as defendants. Most of these cases involve the arson of relay cabinets and rolling stock. Law enforcement officers say the minors were acting on instructions from unidentified individuals linked to Ukraine, and that teenagers are promised substantial payments for carrying out the arson attacks—payments that are either not paid at all or paid only in part.
Assistance
In the Khanty-Mansi autonomous region–Yugra [Russia’s federal subject], court bailiffs wrote off the debts of 1,659 soldiers in 2025, totaling 570 million rubles [$7.26 million], as well as the debts of 273 spouses of service members amounting to 80 million rubles [$1.02 million]. In total, more than 6,500 enforcement proceedings were terminated. Debt write-offs apply to contract soldiers who signed contracts for more than one year after Dec. 1, 2024, provided their total debt does not exceed 10 million rubles [$127,400].
The governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Denis Pasler, announced that the new deputy director of the region’s Department of Youth Policy will be Vasily Bersenev, a former war participant who was a finalist in the Urals Management Personnel program. Before his appointment, Bersenev served for several years in law enforcement and, while at the frontline, coordinated the work of sapper units. After returning from the war, he became the director of a sports school and took part in what officials describe as "patriotic education" of young people.
In the Novosibirsk region, specific positions have been assigned to 16 participants in the war who completed training under the Heroes of Novosibirsk program, three have already received appointments. Authorities plan to employ more than 40 veterans in 2026.
Children and the Militarization
The Ne Norma [Not a Norm] Telegram channel reports that the nationwide Wish Tree campaign, originally conceived as a New Year charity for children, has turned into a tool for militarizing childhood. Over the past year, gifts to children included meetings with war veterans, a toy armored personnel carrier, tours of an armored-vehicles museum or tours of the MoD’s main cathedral.
Longreads
The Sibir.Realii, part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, online media has published an investigation finding that service members who caused fatal traffic accidents while intoxicated often avoid punishment by agreeing to return to the frontline.
Mediazona details the case of Viktoriya Strilets and her daughter Aleksandra, who were sentenced by a court in annexed Sevastopol to 12 years in a penal colony on treason charges despite Viktoriya’s serious health problems and Aleksandra’s having young children.