Mobilization in Russia for July 1-2, 2024 CIT Volunteer SummaryÂ
Authorities and Legislation
The federal government has endorsed a bill which would require employers to transmit data on employees liable for military duty to draft offices, including through the Unified Military Register—the digital register of Russians subject to military service. The system is expected to become operational in 2025 at the earliest.
The federal government has also endorsed a bill to amend the Law on Weapons to give authorities the right to hand over confiscated weapons and ammunition directly to the Ministry of Defense and Rosgvardia [the Russian National Guard] for use in the "special military operation." According to the explanatory note accompanying the bill, the Ministry of Internal Affairs currently holds over 250,000 firearms in its warehouses, either confiscated from individuals, surrendered by owners for destruction, or deposited but not reclaimed within a year.
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
In the city of Orenburg, law enforcement officers and employees of the regional draft office conducted a raid on one of the markets targeting migrants who had recently obtained Russian citizenship. During the raid, 15 men were checked, three of whom were issued draft notices to report to the draft office for military registration.
In the city of Norilsk, the city administration is sending personalized letters to local residents, signed by the Deputy Head of Norilsk, Nikolay Timofeev, offering them contracts to participate in the war. The offer includes a payment of 1 million rubles [$11,500], as well as covering the cost of travel to the city of Krasnoyarsk and accommodation there during the medical board evaluation.
Sergey Koshcheev, former chief editor of the Realnoe Vremya [Real Time] media outlet in Tatarstan, who became a suspect in a criminal case involving two episodes of large-scale fraud, has gone to war. Koshcheev signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense on June 28. He faced up to 10 years in prison. According to investigators, in 2019, Koshcheev stole 6.9 million rubles [$79,600] under the guise of providing free consultations, and in 2020, he stole another 7.3 million rubles [$84,200].
Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers
The list of mobilized soldiers killed in the war has been updated to include Ruslan Malaisariev from the Astrakhan region, Aleksandr Boldyrev and Yury Khizhnyakov from the Rostov region, as well as Aleksandr Leontiev from Russia’s constituent Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
Denis Ivanovsky, a mobilized resident of the Belgorod region, has recorded a complaint regarding the lack of assistance and payments for injuries sustained during his military service. In October 2022, he was wounded and hospitalized, but two days after the shrapnel was removed, he was sent back to the frontline, where he was wounded again on Dec. 28. After that Ivanovsky was transferred to a military unit away from the frontline. However, he never received medical care and was not compensated for the first wound.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
In the Kemerovo region, law enforcement officers opened fire in an attempt to stop the youths who were dancing on the awning of a draft office. On June 27, a group of young people gathered at the town's draft office in Osinniki to bid farewell to the conscripts going to the army. According to local residents, the youths consumed alcohol, danced to music and climbed onto the awning above the draft office's porch. The police and Rosgvardia officers who arrived at the scene attempted to detain the young people. Some of the youths attempted to flee the scene, and at some point, according to a video recording of the incident, a person in uniform fired a warning round into the air from an assault rifle. He then approached a young man, who was lying on the ground and being held by a traffic police officer, and fell during the ensuing struggle. As the man with the assault rifle fell, he accidentally fired a round into the ground. A woman who was present at the scene at the time of the incident fell to the ground and is believed to have lost consciousness from shock; her fate is unknown.
A court in Stavropol sentenced Corporal Sergey G. to five and a half years on probation for going AWOL. The serviceman left his unit in September 2023 due to a lack of proper medical care and turned himself in to the commandant's office in January 2024. The court considered his "admission and acknowledgment of guilt" as a mitigating factor, along with the disability of his parents and the fact that he had a young child.
The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don received eight criminal cases against Ukrainian citizens in June, according to human rights activists from Memorial [Human Rights Defense Center]. All of these individuals are charged under "terrorism-related articles." Memorial reports that during the first six months of this year, the Rostov court has already accepted at least 32 cases initiated against Ukrainian citizens.
A resident of the Bryansk region has been sentenced to three years in a penal colony for voluntarily surrendering to captivity. According to investigators, 39-year-old Vladimir Yerofeyev was "maintaining an SMS correspondence" with a serviceman participating in the invasion of Ukraine in late May 2023. The Investigative Committee found that Yerofeyev was attempting to persuade the serviceman to surrender. He was detained in late April.
A 16-year-old schoolboy suspected of setting fire to railroad equipment was apprehended in the Kaluga region. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, an unknown person set fire to a battery cabinet between the railway stations Lyudinovo-1 and Lyudinovo-2 stations, and also attempted to set fire to a relay cabinet but failed to break into it. The next day, the police detained a local teenager who allegedly stated during interrogation that he had received a Telegram message from a Ukrainian number offering him a "side job." In a video filmed by law enforcement, the teenager claimed he was promised 50,000 rubles [$580] for the arson, but his "handlers" stopped contacting him after the task was completed. The schoolboy has been charged with sabotage, which could lead to up to 20 years in prison.
Sergey Mishchenko from Rostov-on-Don was fined 30,000 rubles [$350] in a criminal case for not reporting a terrorist act. According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), Mishchenko failed to inform law enforcement authorities about "the intention of members of the 'Revolutionary Workers' Party' in Rostov to intentionally set fire to the draft office." Mishchenko pleaded guilty, so the criminal case was considered under a special procedure. Three young men who allegedly planned the arson were arrested in January 2023, two of whom were minors at the time of their arrest.
In the Moscow region, a court sentenced 27-year-old Mikhail Ishchenko from the Kaluga region to ten years in a maximum security penal colony for disrespecting the Russian flag, hooliganism driven by political and ideological hatred, and preparing to participate in combat in a foreign state. Last fall, while intoxicated, Ishchenko burned the Russian flag at the entrance of a sports complex in Khimki. He was arrested and admitted his guilt, but was additionally charged based on messages found on his mobile phone in which he expressed his intention to join the "Russian Volunteer Corps."
The Central District Military Court sentenced 37-year-old travel agency manager Pavel Korshunov from Tolyatti to 13 years in a maximum security penal colony for committing an act of terror that caused significant property damage and vandalism motivated by political hatred. According to the prosecution, in September 2022, Korshunov threw a Molotov cocktail at the Tolyatti city administration building, causing a fire that covered an area of 10 square meters. No one was injured. After his arrest, Korshunov stated that he committed the arson "to intimidate the administration staff" due to the mobilization announced in the country.
Artyom Budzherak, a resident of Ivanovo, was sentenced to six years and four months in a maximum security penal colony for participating in an illegal armed group. After the war in Ukraine began, he sold all his property in Russia and planned to move to Serbia with his family. However, he was detained at Vnukovo airport on Nov. 9, 2022. FSB officers interrogated him for over two hours before informing him that a case had been opened against him.
Antifascist Stepan Zimin, who was detained for having a tattoo that says "Russian warship, go f*** yourself," has been found guilty of "discrediting the Armed Forces" and petty hooliganism. The court sentenced him to seven days of arrest and fined him 30,000 rubles [$350]. Additionally, law enforcement officers forced Zimin to apologize on camera. Vladislav Pozdnyakov, the creator of the extremist "Male State" social media platform published a video of Zimin promising to remove the tattoo. Pozdnyakov had previously initiated Zimin's persecution by posting another video.
The Investigative Committee has refused to initiate a criminal case over the death of volunteer Aleksandr Demidenko in a pre-trial detention center. Demidenko had been assisting Ukrainian refugees before his arrest. He died on April 5, with the Federal Penitentiary Service claiming he committed suicide. The Investigative Committee found no evidence of a crime or any unlawful actions by Federal Penitentiary Service employees concerning Demidenko. His death became publicly known on April 8.
Assistance
In Perm, the Prikamye Humanitarian Center, which assists Russian soldiers, has stopped accepting requests for supplies. The center announced that it had been fueling the vehicles transporting supplies to the frontline on credit, resulting in an accumulated debt of over 400,000 rubles [$4,620], hence they no longer deliver goods for specific soldiers.
In the Chelyabinsk region, the regional government is asking to place ads on utility bills about fundraising for the war, conducted by the pro-government All-Russia People's Front movement.
Children and Educational System
In the Tomsk region, 20 centers for UAV training have been opened in schools and an agricultural college. The region received 317 million rubles [$3.66 million] for the project implementation.
In the Khanty-Mansi autonomous region–Yugra [Russia's federal subject], the regional branch of Veterans of Russia will hold a sports and patriotic rally entitled "Za rodinu" [For the Fatherland] for schoolchildren aged 12-18. The program includes disassembling an assault rifle and shooting. According to the project application, "heroes of the special military operation" will take part in the rally.
Longreads
The Tochka media outlet released a material about how war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder are threatening relatives and neighbors and want to return to the frontline, and the Defenders of the Fatherland Fund, led by Putin's niece Anna Tsivileva, is not assisting them.
Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] reported on the case of the three Ascheulov brothers, sons of a Lipetsk priest, who are on trial for attempting to join the "Freedom of Russia Legion."