Mobilization in Russia for Jan. 19-21, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary

Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising

Maksim Loktev, Moscow’s military commissar, announced that male residents who turn 17 in 2025 will receive notifications about their automatic initial registration for military service between Jan. 1 and March 31, with messages delivered via SMS and the city’s public services portal mos.ru. "These do not confer a service fitness category, alter existing draft deferrals or trigger an immediate call to the army," Loktev clarified. Once the youths reach 18, authorities will summon them to the Unified Military Recruitment Center for this evaluation. Citing the Movement of Conscientious Objectors, a human rights organization supporting those who refuse to perform military service, the Vyorstka media outlet reported that draft offices in Moscow have already begun sending notifications of automatic initial registration. Young people have received letters from the Gosuslugi public services portal with a confirmation of their registration, a conscript ID and information on resulting obligations. In the Telegram chat of the human rights organization Shkola Prizyvnika [Conscript School], a user wrote that he received instructions to undergo a conscription-related medical evaluation just 10 minutes after Gosuslugi sent him the notification. The Movement of Conscientious Objectors notes that these automated messages provide further evidence that the Unified Military Register, a digital system designed to track Russians subject to military service and deliver draft notices, is now operational. A source in a Moscow draft office told Vyorstka that it has essentially been used since late 2024.

In Saint Petersburg the sign-up bonus for signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense was increased for the first time since August. The amount was raised by 400,000 rubles [$3,940], to a total of 2.1 million rubles [$20,700]. With the national supplement included, the total bonus for signing the contract has reached 2.5 million rubles [$24,600].

Additionally, the sign-up bonus was increased in the Magadan region, where it will now also amount to 2.1 million rubles [$20,700], up from the previous 1.3 million rubles [$12,800]. In the Primorsky region [Russia's federal subject], the sign-up bonus was raised from 800,000 rubles [$7,880] to 1 million rubles [$9,850]. Meanwhile, in Russia’s constituent republic of Mari El, the payment for signing a contract with the MoD was raised from 1.4 million rubles [$13,800] to 1.8 million rubles [$17,700].

In Saint Petersburg's draft offices, recruitment is underway for the so-called African Corps under the MoD. Those wishing to be deployed to Africa must undergo a screening, including a polygraph test, before signing a contract. The payment amounts for signing a contract for service in Africa are the same as the standard rates, and "transfers from the Special Military Operation are not considered."

Also in Saint Petersburg, the police conducted a raid targeting migrants. Several hundred employees at a vegetable warehouse were inspected. Three workers were issued draft notices, and a total of about 70 people were detained. The detainees were charged with violating migration laws.

In Moscow, authorities conducted an anti-migrant raid near a shopping center in Tyoply Stan. Dozens of people were detained during the operation, though no reports of draft notices being issued have emerged. Law enforcement officers also detained activist Gleb Babich, who was filming the roundup. A police officer confiscated his passport and told him he should "defend the homeland." Babich was taken to the draft office for the Novomoskovsky and Troitsky administrative districts before being released.

According to the Crew Against Torture [a Russian non-governmental organization in the field of human rights], a Federal Penitentiary Service employee and two convicts, who were accused of sexual violence against inmates transferred to Detention Center No. 6 from the Angarsk penal colony following the 2020 riot, were sent to the war. In late October 2024, a court suspended criminal cases against former Detention Center No. 6 shift supervisor Vasily Lukovsky and the two convicts, Zhan Lapin and Vladimir Shleyning, after they signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense and left for the frontline.

Yegor Kardashevsky, the former deputy mayor of Yakutsk, who was held responsible for over 100 homes being flooded in 2023, avoided prosecution by going to war. The former official has been under investigation for criminal negligence since May 2023.

Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers

Ilya Shabetya, a soldier from the 27th Motorized Rifle Brigade, who was recently declared unfit for military service, is being deployed to the forward positions. Additionally, Shabetya reported that his fellow soldiers from their military unit in the Moscow region are also being deployed, including soldiers suffering from various injuries and illnesses, some of whom use crutches. Shabetya has a certificate granting him complete exemption from military service until he is removed from the unit's roster; however, he still was illegally deployed to the frontline by his commanders. According to Shabetya, of the 74 servicemen who were deployed, only 14 survived after two months, and all of them are now in serious medical condition. Currently, the man is being held under a convoy in the Russian-occupied city of Luhansk. His appeal to the prosecutor's office yielded no results.

Soldiers of the 55th Motorized Rifle Brigade have reported a lack of medical treatment and the disbanding of their company. According to the servicemen, after sustaining injuries, they are being returned to the frontline from hospitals before achieving full recovery. Many of them are unable to move without the help of crutches or canes. The soldiers have only a few days of preparation, after which they are sent into combat where they suffer heavy casualties, with only five out of a group of 30 soldiers returning from the mission. Now their company is facing imminent disbandment, with the soldiers being redistributed among the "Donetsk brigades." They believe that the command is seeking to eliminate them in order to conceal its own crimes.

Relatives of servicemen from the 123rd Motorized Rifle Brigade are complaining that the unit's command is listing their subordinates as "missing in action." The relatives are confident they have identified their loved ones in videos from hospitals and captivity. According to them, it is impossible to contact the Ukrainian side regarding the prisoners, they are not allowed into hospitals, and the MoD does not respond to their inquiries.

The wife of a missing in action contract soldier claims that he was sent on a mission with shrapnel in his leg, after which he went missing. Twenty-seven-year-old Aleksandr Zakharov signed a contract in the fall of 2023 and joined the 299th Regiment of the 98th Guards Airborne Division. In June 2024, he was injured by shrapnel during the assault on the town of Chasiv Yar. According to Zakharov's wife, his company commander demanded a bribe for treatment, threatening that if he refused, he would be "erased" during the next combat mission. The wife claims that after her husband refused, the commander sent him to "the pit" and later, along with a group of other refuseniks and wounded soldiers, to the assault. The last time the man was heard from was in June. Later, one of Zakharov's fellow soldiers told his wife that he had refused to carry out a mission while injured, and commanders allegedly ordered his execution. The man is still officially listed as missing in action, and his wife is calling on the MoD to investigate the situation.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

Authorities in the Voronezh region are searching for a 36-year-old soldier who fled his military unit. According to the Ostorozhno, Novosti [Beware the News] Telegram channel, the man has several criminal convictions. Two years ago, he received his last suspended sentence and was under administrative supervision. In 2023, he signed a contract with the MoD. Reportedly, at the end of December last year, the soldier left the unit in civilian clothes and his whereabouts have been unknown since. A case has been opened against him for going AWOL.

Aleksandr Chernyak, a serviceman from the 1642nd Motorized Rifle Regiment committed suicide by blowing himself up with a hand grenade. The incident occurred on Jan. 15 in the occupied town of Yenakiieve in the Donetsk region. The soldier’s body was found in the woods not far from where his unit was stationed.

A Chita court found the serviceman Konstantin Pichuev guilty of murder. According to the court documents, he stabbed a stranger to death after suspecting him of assaulting Pichuev’s girlfriend. Although Pichuev had been found guilty of theft in June 2021 and sentenced to three years and two months in a penal colony, he was not serving time at the time of the murder. Earlier he had been handed out a suspended sentence for stealing a car. The soldier has now been sentenced to eight years and four months in a maximum security penal colony.

Albert Abdullin, 30, who returned from the war a year ago, has been detained in Moscow on suspicion of murder of a woman. Abdulin stabbed the woman to death and hid her body in a car belonging to a famous Russian actor.

A military court has sentenced Nikita Shevchenko, a resident of the Kamchatka region, to seven years of imprisonment for the armed capture of a female hostage. The apartment where the hostage was held was stormed, but the woman was not harmed. According to Telegram channels, the 32-year-old defendant is a previously convicted participant in the war with Ukraine who was recruited from a penal colony to fight in the war and returned after being injured.

In the town of Spassk-Dalny in the Primorsky region, a previously convicted ex-mercenary of the Wagner Group is suspected of having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl. IIn an interview with the Astra Telegram channel, the man claimed that the girl allegedly initiated the intimacy after drinking alcohol together. Meanwhile, an investigator has already suggested that the suspect go to the war with Ukraine. He agreed, but a draft office refused him because the man had an Ilizarov apparatus installed.

The press service of the Central Military District reported that a serviceman of the 55th Motorized Rifle Brigade has been detained in Tuva for assaulting his fellow soldiers. A criminal case has been initiated against him for abuse of power involving violence. Additionally, Z-channels identified other participants in the assault.

A court has rejected Sergey Moskovets, a mobilized father of many children from the Krasnodar region, his request to be discharged from the army. In his attempt to contest being sent to the frontline, he referred to the Instructions of the General Staff of the Russian MoD exempting fathers of multiple children from mobilization. However, the draft office, followed by the court, determined that Moskovets did not qualify for a deferral, as two of his children were born after he was deployed to the war.

A 22-year-old man from Saint Petersburg has been detained for setting a locomotive at the Ruchyi station on fire. The incident occurred in the early hours of Jan. 19, resulting in the locomotive's cabin being completely burnedbeyond repair. According to the man, he received instructions through a messaging app from an unknown "representative of Ukrainian intelligence services." A criminal case has been opened against him on charges of committing an act of terror.

Natalia and Ekaterina Degtyannikova, accused of setting fire to the United Russia [Puyin’s ruling party] office in Perm, werereleased from house arrest—the court did not extend their sentence but did restrain them from certain actions.

In Barnaul, the Federal Security Service (FSB) detained an 18-year-old college student in connection with the arson of a draft office. He was arrested near the said office building, and charged with an attempted terrorist attack.

The Second Eastern District Military Court sentenced Krasnoyarsk resident Anton Bobylev to eight years in prison on charges of financing a terrorist organization for supporting the Freedom of Russia Legion.

A case was opened against a 15-year-old schoolboy for failing to report a potential crime to the authorities. The investigation believes that the teenager knew about the preparation of an arson attackon the United Russia office in the city of Dolgoprudny, Moscow region, in February 2024, but "did not notify law enforcement agencies about it."

A court in Nizhny Novgorod has sentenced Sergey Ganin, a native of Arzamas, to nine years in a penal colony on charges of participating in an illegal armed group on the territory of a foreign state. According to investigators, Ganin fought as part of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps between 2014 and 2015. Ganin and his defense team maintained that he had an alibi, claiming that during the period in question, he was working on construction sites in Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow, and was under supervision due to a prior conviction.

Assistance

In Chelyabinsk, volunteer Anna Deryabina, who assists Russian soldiers, has launched a fundraising campaign to purchase ammunition. According to Vyorstka, from May to December 2024, more than 4,300 units of personal weapons were sent to the war by Russian citizens. Last week, Dmitry Artyukhov, the governor of the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region [Russia's federal subject], sent his own rifle to the front.

In the Kirov region, participants in the war with Ukraine, during their leave or treatment, will be able to visit regional sports and cultural venues for free, as well as use public transport at no charge.

Children and Educational System

The administration of Vologda has announced the start of weekly sessions called "Talking About Important Things" [a compulsory lesson held every Monday in schools across the country] in all 78 preschools across the city. This initiative is tied to the Year of the Defenders of the Fatherland and the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The Agentstvo [Agency] independent media outlet found photos and videos on social media depicting the first sessions in the Vologda region. One such session took place in a kindergarten where Nadezhda Vorontsova works; she proposed this idea to Putin.

In the Primorsky region, Governor Oleg Kozhemyako announced the construction of the Vostok [East] sniper training center. Snipers will be trained by participants of the Young Army [pro-Kremlin youth organization], as well as those undergoing training in the Avangard and Voin centers. These organizations include children of school age.

Longreads

In a long-read article, the Kavkaz.Realii [Caucasus.Realities, part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] media outlet released material detailing how residents of annexed Crimea are being persecuted for their anti-war stance.

Meanwhile, the Sever.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet reported on bailiffs attempting to coerce Russians into paying off debts by recruiting them for military service.

Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] covered the case of Mark Kislitsyn, sentenced to 12 years on charges of treason for transferring $10 to the National Bank of Ukraine on the first day of the war. His case is being used by propaganda as a pretext for further repression against the LGBT community.