Mobilization in Russia for Jan. 31 — Feb. 1 CIT volunteer summary

Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Marat Khusnullin stated during the meeting with President Vladimir Putin that the residents of the border areas in the Belgorod, Kursk, and Bryansk regions need to be relocated due to shelling. Only in the Belgorod region, this relocation will cost more than 9 billion rubles.

Valentina Matviyenko [Chairwoman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation] is offering to suspend the effects of federal law No. 44 on public procurement. This law ensures that companies compete for government contracts in a free-market fashion. According to Matviyenko, it is time "to let go of some kind of dogma," adapt to the "new reality," and "provide an opportunity to quickly allocate funds."

Despite the assurances by authorities that the draft exemptions for fathers of three and more children are still in effect and the corresponding instructions by the General Staff of Oct. 4, citizens continue to send numerous appeals to the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia] Committee for Family, Women, and Children Affairs in regards to the refusals by military commissariats [enlistment offices] to act in accordance with the aforementioned instructions. Due to this issue, Nina Ostatina, a member of the State Duma who already spoke on this topic multiple times, sent an official inquiry asking to clarify the stance of the military commissariats on the issue to Defense Minister Shoigu.

Saint Petersburg State University announced the verification of military service register data of staff several months earlier than usual. It will take place in 2023 starting on Feb. 6 and last through Apr. 18, even though typically, it is held from April to September. The military registration desk of the university clarified that the change is the result of instructions from the military commissariat of Saint Petersburg. Reasons for the change in the schedule were not given.

The military commissar of Nazran, along with 4 of his subordinates, is being investigated under the suspicion of "forming an organized crime group" engaged in providing illegal deferrals from regular military conscription. All of them accepted bribes for creating documents granting deferrals from the fall conscription period from November 2022 through January 2023. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense is demanding that all publications related to the business dealings of Chief Military Commissar of the Volgograd region Andrey Letunov as a manager of the Vladimirskaya sloboda luxury development in the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain be blocked.

The Russian FSB [Federal Security Service] announced that 3 individuals have been apprehended, who have allegedly been preparing terrorist acts on the railways in the Sverdlovsk region "per assignment by Ukrainian radicals." A criminal case has been opened citing the statutes for terrorist acts and assisting terrorist activity, which carries prison sentences starting at 12 years behind bars.

In yesterday's summary, we mentioned the first ever sentence over charges of setting a draft office on fire under the article "Terrorist attack" of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The man accused of filming the arson was sentenced to 12 years in prison. According to lawyer Pavel Rusnakov, the second arsonist who reached a plea deal with the prosecutor may be facing 7 to 8 years in prison.

A serviceman carrying bayonets in a gym bag was detained in the Moscow metro. The incident took place at Novoyasenevskaya station. The man admitted that he had found the bayonets in the combat zone and intended to keep them as trophies. The man was detained by the police; the bayonets and his personal belongings were confiscated. An investigation into him is ongoing.

The city council of Yaroslavl is rolling out new support programs for mobilized residents and contract soldiers deployed to the "special military operation" area, such as deferred payment for real estate property leased from the city. The deferral will be offered for the term of military service only. Once returned from the war, the citizen will be required to repay the amount deferred.

Four months after the mobilization announcement, a group of mobilized men arrived in Bashkiria [Russia's constituent Republic] for a short leave. It should be noted that this is already the second group of vacationers. The first group went back to the war zone on Jan. 28. Unlike Chuvashia [Russia's constituent Republic], the authorities in Bashkiria provided buses for the mobilized.

The mobilized men continue to die in the combat zone: Aleksandr Veselov from the Yaroslavl region, Vasily Vaulin from the Zabaykalsky region, Vladimir Osipenko from Sevastopol, Aleksandr Shishebarov from Vologda, and Lev Grigoryev from Serov were killed in the war in Ukraine. The name of the 98th serviceman who was killed in the strike on Makiivka was also revealed: it was Vitaly Rusinov, previously listed as missing.

A mother of many children from the Voronezh region had three sons mobilized for the war, and the elder one went to the front as a volunteer. The authors of one of the pro-Russian Telegram channels visited the woman and gave her a tablet, TV, and household appliances. Moreover, her youngest child received a toy howitzer.

30 sets of Soviet-style uniforms will be sent to the Russian soldiers on the frontline. All-Russian Popular Front activists reported that the clothes were donated by "a caring resident of Blagoveshchensk Viktor." Yet, it's unclear where and how Victor got the uniforms.

In the Krasnodar region, a request for help to participants of "the special military operation" is spread in the chats of schoolchildren's parents. Residents are encouraged to bring any fabric they do not need to schools to make camouflage nets. Meanwhile, in the Ulyanovsk region, a rector of a church gave two bags of church candle ends to use for making trench candles. A training rifle was handed over to a school in Kharauz in the Zabaykalsky region on behalf of Andrey Gurulyov, a State Duma member for the region. The rifle was handed in response to the request of a PE teacher to provide weapons for "successful preparation for regional competitions."

Mongolia announced its readiness to accept Russian citizens who left for Kazakhstan trying to escape mobilization. Mongolian Foreign Minister Batmunkhin Battsetseg confirmed to journalists that a positive decision had been made on this issue.