Mobilization in Russia for Jan. 30–31, 2023, CIT volunteer summary

Vladimir Putin has met with Igor Krasnov, Prosecutor General of Russia. Krasnov reported that “because of due diligence efforts more than 9 thousand illegally mobilized citizens returned home, including those who were not supposed to get mobilized whatsoever due to their health conditions.”

President Putin has also signed a decree that allows the searches of motor vehicles crossing the borders of Russia’s regions if the “yellow” terror-alert level is enacted. Previously the search of cars was only allowed in times of “red” (critical) terror-alert level. Furthermore, Putin has lifted the restriction on the time limits for enacting terror-alert levels in the regions. Previously these levels could only be enacted for up to 15 days.

Russia and Belarus are planning to sign the agreement in regards to creation of combat training centers for the combined training of servicemen of the both countries. Putin has issued the corresponding order to the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This order has been published on the official legal information web portal. It is worth recalling that Russian servicemen have already been trained on Belarus’s training ranges ever since “partial” mobilization was enacted. Meanwhile, the military authorities have warned the residents of towns and villages close by Molkino (Krasnodar region) training range that military training exercises, including the use of live ammunition and aircraft ordnances, will be taking place on the range for the next 4 months.

Chairman of the Defense Committee of the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia] Andrey Kartapolov has offered on the law making level to provide all servicemen, mercenaries and reservists with free postal envelopes.

Military commissariats [enlistment offices] in Russia will identify citizens who want to fight in Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense describes conditions for concluding contracts with volunteers in the corresponding package of draft orders, providing them with weapons and gear, rules for medical care, issuing veteran certificates, and organizing funerals for the dead. It is assumed that the enlistment offices will have to identify those wishing to sign up as volunteer fighters, who, unlike the military, will be allowed to leave military service early. However, at the same time, they will be required to reimburse the costs incurred by the state.

Tomsk State University has created a site for notification of the start of mobilization activities. The site should start working within two hours after receiving the "Line-222" signal from the military commissariat of Tomsk. Four hours after that, messengers, including students, should leave the site (one messenger for ten draft notices). Two cars with a sufficient supply of fuel must always be at the disposal of the site.

Vice Speaker of the State Duma from the Liberal Democratic Party Boris Chernyshov proposed to create in Moscow a resource center for psychological assistance to Russian participants in the war in Ukraine, as well as to their families. According to Chernyshov, soldiers and their relatives who returned from the war face "all sorts of psychological problems and issues of adaptation." He believes that such a center would help them solve their problems.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation proposed to make changes to the payments framework for military personnel. Currently, servicemen may use one of almost 80 banks to receive their allowances. The Ministry wants to limit the number of financial institutions allowed to process such payments. According to the explanatory note, the Ministry is concerned with possible leaks of personal data of military personnel. The bill with the corresponding amendments to the "On Defense" law has already been approved by the Commission of the Government of the Russian Federation on legislative activities.

The authorities of Bashkiria [constituent republic in the Russian Federation] informed when the families of mobilized soldiers will receive compensation. According to the local residents, not all eligible for payments received them. The Ministry of Labor of the republic reported that payments could be delayed due to incorrect payment details, and set the deadline for payments transfer — until Feb. 4.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation refused to discuss payments with the wife of a mobilized soldier from Khanty-Mansi Autonomous region — Yugra [federal subject of Russia]. She has complained that the military departments do not resolve the issue with payments to her husband. She has been told that her husband would have to take care of payments himself and call from the “special military operation” zone despite the fact that he would endanger himself and other fighters.

A court in Russia returned a verdict under the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Terrorist act” for the first time in its practice. The Central District Military Court (Yekaterinburg) sentenced Vladislav Borisenko to 12 years in a maximum security colony by accusation of setting fire to an enlistment office in Nizhnevartovsk. It is worth mentioning that Borisenko merely filmed the arson process on video, according to the OVD-Info Independent human rights media project.

In Zelenograd [a district of Moscow], a platoon commander was detained after an unauthorized leave of absence from the military unit with a weapon. According to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, on Jan. 30, in Zelenograd, FSB [Federal Security Service] officers detained Lieutenant Vadim A., who served in the military unit in Rossosh, Voronezh region. A criminal case has been initiated under the article "Unauthorized abandonment of a military unit." The lieutenant was listed as the commander of the 3rd Motorized Rifle Platoon. A Makarov gun was recovered during the arrest.

At a waste processing plant in Moscow, a sorter found а training ammunition load for a howitzer. During the scene inspection, the law enforcement officers who arrived on a call also found dozens of explosion packs, imitation and signal ammunition cartridges, packages of saltpeter and gunpowder, and electric igniters. How all these items ended up in the trash remains unknown.

The court sentenced an employee of the penal colony 7 of the Vladimir region to probation on charges of disclosing state secrets. He allegedly handed аn inmate documents pertaining to "mobilization training and civil defense."

Governor of the Saratov region, Roman Busargin, arrived at one of the stationing points for mobilized draftees. Busargin mentioned this in a post on his Telegram channel. The governor also said a new batch of aid would be delivered to the mobilized. Also, a senator from Chuvashia promised to help a draftee’s mother with firewood. At home, the aforementioned draftee also left a pregnant wife and two children.

The authorities of the Russia’s constituent Republic of Mordovia will not provide transportation for mobilized soldiers who intend to go home on vacation. The wives of servicemen from Saransk reported this on social media. A similar situation, as it turned out, took place in Chuvashia [Russia’s constituent republic].

Wives and mothers of draftees from Ussuriysk recorded a video address to Putin. They complained that the soldiers had been “at the firing line” since October and — with no possibility of maintaining personal hygiene — had been infested with lice and itch mites. The female relatives addressed their complaint to the President himself because, according to them, all complaints directed to the Primorsky region Governor Oleg Kozhemyako via his Telegram channel had been deleted or blocked. They also requested that the soldiers be granted leaves, so they could come home and rest. The RBC news portal reports that Gov. Kozhemyako finally — and only after this video had appeared — forwarded the women’s address to the military prosecutor’s office.

A wife from Krasnodar has been trying for four months to bring back from the front her draftee husband who suffers from a spinal injury (we have mentioned this story several times in our previous summaries). She sewed, wrote dozens of complaints, and had even been detained for picketing. None of this has helped so far to return her husband home. The 7x7 — Gorizontalnaya Rossiya [Horizontal Russia] news outlet published a detailed account of what Kseniya Abramova had gone through.

Mobilized Russians keep being killed in the war in Ukraine. Already in early January, Sergey Pyatibratov, 39, from Minusinsk, was killed at the front. Sergey Vasichkov, b.1995, from Nakhodka, who was mobilized into the 155th Marine Infantry Brigade that had been recently involved in heavy fighting near Vuhledar was taken prisoner.

The names of 97 mobilized soldiers who were killed as a result of the strike on Makiivka became known. The list was supplemented by Ilya Makarov. Valery K., a 46-year-old mobilized soldier from Samara, who was injured in Makiivka, was refused to be operated on and is going to be returned against his will to the “special military operation” area. Recall that yesterday CIT published an article about the strike on Makiivka.

Starting Apr. 1, Crimea citizens who returned from the war will be given land parcels for free. This was announced by Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian-appointed Head of annexed Crimea.

Rusks for mobilized soldiers are being dried in a Novosibirsk school. Students and teachers sew fabric bags for rusks at classes. Mothers and wives of killed soldiers from Penza are being rehabilitated with the help of cats, prayers and make-up master classes. An “unpleasant situation” has occurred in the Mikhailovsky district of the Altai region, where a collection box for stuff and meals for soldiers disappeared in one of the stores. The thief has not yet been found.

"Hero's desks" dedicated to the soldiers who were killed in the “special military operation” will soon appear in universities and colleges. To date, more than 11,000 desks have already been placed in 6,000 schools across the country. The ruling United Russia party hailed the practice as successful and decided to scale it up to colleges and universities.

The Voyenny Ombudsmen [Military Ombudsman] Telegram channel answers the question of what to do if an employer takes away military IDs [from employees], and whether it is lawful.