Mobilization in Russia for July 30-31, 2023 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
On July 31, President Putin signed a number of laws:
- The first law establishes a 13% personal income tax rate for Russian citizens working for Russian companies from abroad, regardless of their tax residency. The tax will apply to anyone who works remotely under either an employment contract or a civil law contract;
- The second law allows the detention of those suspected of committing a serious or grave crime for up to 30 days without a court decision during martial law. Previously, citizens could only be detained for up to 48 hours before a preventive measure was chosen;
- The third law increases the penalties for military registration violations (see this and this for more details on the fines);
- The fourth law stipulates that in the event of death of a serviceman participating in the war, the state will repay the loan he had taken out under the military mortgage program.
According to MinTsifry [the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of Russia], only 6,682 out of 10,000 IT companies applied for extension of their accreditation, which is slightly more than 60%. Of these, 2,000 companies were unable to keep their accreditation because the level of salaries did not match the average for the region where they were registered, or for the country as a whole. Earlier, MinTsifry tightened the requirements for IT companies accreditation. Companies that have not been accredited lost the right to grant deferments from military service to their employees.
Head of Shkola Prizyvnika [Conscript School, a human rights organization] Alexey Tabalov spoke with the Mozhem Ob'yasnit [We can explain] Telegram channel about the restrictions imposed on citizens, who fail to report into the draft office following a notice. He noted the lack of a procedure to lift these restrictions for individuals who reach the age limit for military service or the military reserve. According to the new legislation, Russian citizens will need to have their military registration status changed first, before the restrictions can be lifted.
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
The staff of the Volzhsky draft office located in the Volgograd region, have been calling local female residents and offering them to sign a military service contract with the Ministry of Defense. When contacted by journalists, a draft office representative assured that no further calls to women would be made.
Mobilized Soldiers and Volunteer Fighters
The list of mobilized soldiers killed in the war has been updated to include Sergey Savenok from the Irkutsk region, Nikolay Tarasov from the Moscow region, Andrey Gavrilenko and Konstantin Figol from the Novosibirsk region, Maksim Konev from Buryatia [Russia's constituent republic], Andrey Zamkov from the Altai region [Russia’s federal subject], Aleksandr Antonov and Pavel Trofimov from Chuvashia [Russia's constituent republic], Aleksandr Naumenko from the Sverdlovsk region, and Vyacheslav Solodilin from the Orenburg region.
As estimated by Andriy Cherniak representing the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Russia has forcibly mobilized up to 60,000 men, including students, in the occupied territories of Ukraine since February 2022.
The 1443th Regiment’s mobilized soldiers from the Samara region have started getting leaves after their families reached out to the region’s Governor Dmitry Azarov.
Wives of mobilized soldiers have recorded videos with their children, pleading for their fathers to be brought back home. The women also ask to pass legislation that limits the duration of mobilization to a maximum of six months. They are actively gathering signatures in support of their request.
In response to a complaint from a resident of the Pskov region about the lack of sign-up bonuses, Governor of the Pskov region Mikhail Vedernikov stated that "no one promised payments." However, in August 2022, Vedernikov issued a decree, which granted sign-up bonuses to contract soldiers. Later, the regional social protection committee clarified that the decree supposedly only applies to the 71st Separate Anti-tank Artillery Division (part of the 3rd Army Corps).
A large family of volunteer fighters from the Ketovsky district, Kurgan region, is facing difficulties in obtaining social support from local authorities. To receive assistance, the wife of a military man must provide documents, which are at the moment in possession of her husband, who is in the zone of combat activities and unable to send them. Despite appeals to the authorities, no progress was made until journalists intervened.
In Moscow, the wife of mobilized soldier Viktor Ovchinnikov is trying to bring her husband back home. Since the mobilization, the couple has had their third child, and the woman needs to be hospitalized for examination, but she has no one to leave the children with. However, lawyers at the district draft office informed her that they cannot bring the man back home. They did not explain the reasons for the refusal. The woman has tried to appeal to various authorities, but no one could help her.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings, and Incidents
The Garrison Military Court in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky sentenced local resident Grigory Mekhedov to two and a half years under the charge of failure to execute orders for refusing to participate in the war in Ukraine.
According to Astra Telegram channel, in Novosibirsk, a criminal case for rape has been initiated against 25-year-old serviceman Aleksandr Popov from the 39th Rocket Division. The investigation alleges that in June 2023, while intoxicated, he raped a 9th-grade student.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) has initiated a criminal case of treason against three men from the Voronezh region. They allegedly provided information about military facilities and transportation infrastructure to the Right Sector [coalition of right-wing Ukrainian organizations]. In a video published by the TASS and RIA Novosti Russian state-owned news agencies, one of the detainees also confessed to setting fire to relay cabinets on the railways. The accused face punishment up to life imprisonment.
A 76-year-old man tried to set fire to a military commissariat [enlistment office] in the city of Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk region. He was persuaded by phone scammers to commit the crime. The scammers told the man that there were people accused of treason located in the building of the military commissariat who must be burned. A bottle thrown by the man hit the wall of the building failing to start a fire, no one was injured. An attempted destruction of property criminal case has been opened.
A senior woman in Kazan was arrested for attempting to set fire to a military commissariat building. According to preliminary data, she approached the building of the district military commissariat, doused the wall with gasoline and set it on fire. While being arrested, the woman claimed that she had done it at the request of strangers who introduced themselves as intelligence services agents. The woman is being charged with destruction of property.
In Kaluga, a 77-year-old woman attempted to set fire to the military commissariat [enlistment office]. The building’s wall and a window on the first floor were scorched. The arsonist was arrested by the police, but her motives remain unknown. Meanwhile, in Kazan, a 23-year-old woman threw a burning mixture at the entrance door of the military commissariat, but it failed to ignite. The arsonist initially managed to escape but was later detained by the police.
A Russian language teacher, who allegedly attempted to set fire to the military commissariat in Feodosia, has been charged with hooliganism. According to law enforcement, the woman acted upon the instructions of individuals who posed as bank employees and law enforcement officers over the phone. A video was also published, indicating that the woman was detained by the police, not tourists as previously reported.
An unknown person set fire to railroad equipment in the Krasnoyarsk region, near the Sharypovo station. Two relay cabinets were scorched, but the flames extinguished on their own, causing no train delays. In Moscow, another relay cabinet was set on fire, but it was already out of order. Train operations were unaffected. Two school students, aged 15 and 16, were detained on suspicion of arson; they confessed to committing the arson attack for money. A criminal case has been opened under the charge of "disruption of communication lines."
More than 370 munitions for a 20mm anti-aircraft gun were found near the railroad tracks on Rozanov Street in Moscow.
Two more employees of the oil refinery where the explosion occurred on July 28 have been detained in the Samara region: 23-year-old electrician Maksim Khan and 48-year-old former road worker Oleg Osipov.
The FSB has detained a Barnaul resident who attempted to send spare parts for BMP-1 and BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles "to one of the neighboring countries". A criminal case has been initiated under the article concerning the attempted illegal movement of military vehicles through the Russian border. Investigators say that the detained man specializes in the supply of industrial equipment, but he lacks a license to work with spare parts for military vehicles and a permit to export them abroad.
Moscow resident Anna Golovina was acquitted in the case of her participation in a protest rally against mobilization. The woman was issued an administrative report under the article on participation in an unauthorized rally (Article 5.35 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation). The police considered that on Sept. 24 last year, the woman was near the Chistye Prudy metro station, where the rally allegedly took place. However, the defense was able to prove that there was no one except police officers at the station and the rally did not happen.
Assistance
Administrations of the Kursk and Tyumen regions will be granting free allotments to the veterans of the war with Ukraine and their families. In the Khabarovsk region, local seamstresses make camouflage nets from saltwater fishing nets. Meanwhile, the Novosibirsk region donated seven UAZ vehicles for the needs of the "special military operation.”
A doctor from Moscow who refused to chip in to hire a nurse for an injured serviceman in a residential group chat was forced to leave Russia as a result of harassment and threats. After having declined to contribute money, the woman was banned from the chat, and screenshots of the text chain with her personal details were made public by notorious propagandists Vladimir Solovyov and Andrey Medvedev. Shortly thereafter, she, her sisters and her father were subjected to insults and threats.
Children
Russia’s Ministry of Science and Higher Education issued guidance to public universities, requiring them to include a course titled "Learning through Serving" into the curriculum. The course aims to promote "civic consciousness, patriotism, leadership, civil solidarity, and traditional values" amongst students.
The Vladimir State University is planning to provide assistance, including counseling, to veterans of the invasion of Ukraine and their children, and to invite soldiers to give lessons to students.
The local Cossacks association allocated 500,000 rubles [$5450] from the grant awarded by the Presidential Grants Foundation to set up a military training classroom in Secondary School No. 3 in the town of Petrovsk in the Saratov region. The Cossacks have pledged to engage 200 schoolchildren in grades 5 to 9 in physical training and military drill over the next school year.
Regardless of the holiday, pre-school and elementary school students from the village of Sovetsky in the Khanty-Mansi autonomous region–Yugra [Russia's federal subject] are still being involved in collecting donations and camouflage net weaving for war participants.
Miscellaneous
The Mayor’s Office in Bryansk has issued a directive on introducing blackout regulations in the city.
According to the 66.RU media outlet, the Gosuslugi public services portal started indicating the official registration address and the actual place of residence in people’s account profiles. Where the address information comes from and how it is verified is not clear.
The participants of the Molodyozhnoye puteshestviye po Komi [Youth trip across Komi] project were taken to the graveyard to visit the grave of Vladimir Nosov, a resident of Komi [Russia’s constituent republic] killed in the war with Ukraine. The soldier’s parents were invited to meet the tourists, and the head of the district Nikolay Kanev made a speech.
Longreads
The Sibir.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet produced a material about the life of war returnees in Ulan-Ude and the challenges faced by their family members and people around them. The soldiers are generally not allowed in night clubs to avoid inevitable brawling. Meanwhile, their wives, children, and neighbors have no escape and don’t expect assistance from authorities.
The Sibir.Realii also interviewed the wives of volunteer fighters. According to the women, they have to buy gear for their husbands at their own expense, and one of them said that only 73 out of 240 servicemen remained in her husband’s unit.
The Proekt [Project] media outlet discovered how Russian oligarchs had earned billions of dollars from defense contracts, some of which involve weapons that kill civilians in Ukrainian cities. Journalists identified individuals involved in the production of missiles that killed people in Vinnytsia, as well as those who contributed to the production of bombs dropped on the drama theater in Mariupol.
The Vyorstka media outlet studied classified data from Russian customs statistics and calculated the extent of sanctioned goods entering Russia. According to the media outlet, over the past six months, Russia has imported over $502 million worth of banned chips from Western companies used for the production of missiles and other weaponry, and at least $171 million worth of Western spare parts for civil aviation.