Mobilization in Russia for July 19-21, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
Tyumen malls and hypermarkets have seen the emergence of "propaganda patrols." Military representatives are stationed near cash registers to inform shoppers about the contract-based military service, including the size of sign-up bonuses, salaries and other benefits available to servicemen. It is unknown how long the propaganda patrols will operate at these locations. According to the head of the contract military service recruitment facility, the promotional campaign will continue in other places later.
Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers
The list of mobilized soldiers killed in the war has been updated to include Bulat Galdanov, Sergey Krivogornitsyn, Vyacheslav Vampilov and Yevgeny Dyachenko from Russia’s constituent Republic of Buryatia, as well as Mikhail Lavrinovich, Yury Serebrennikov and Anton Chugunov from the Irkutsk region.
On April 15, 2024, an 18-year-old contract soldier from Tyumen, Yaroslav Lipavsky, was killed in the war, a week after being deployed to the frontline and less than a month after his 18th birthday, which was on March 16, 2024. This makes Lipavsky the youngest soldier to have died in the war with Ukraine thus far. According to his mother, who spoke to the Agentstvo [Agency] independent media outlet, Lipavsky was supposed to join the army as a conscript but signed a contract instead, possibly to avoid criminal prosecution.
Two service members from Ingushetia [Russia’s constituent republic] died only days apart in a training camp near Donetsk. Initially, an anonymous source within military personnel claimed that fellow soldiers killed Rashid Dudarov for refusing to participate in an assault mission. While Ingush authorities promised his family that justice would be served, a month has passed since his funeral with no news from the investigation into his death. Reports now indicate that Ziauddin Tumgoev, who had been convicted to 18 years imprisonment for involvement in kidnappings, has also been found dead in a training camp in the Donetsk region. Allegedly, officials had been torturing Tumgoev in a pre-trial detention center and penal colony, leading him to sign a military service contract. The medical examiner’s report cites "hemorrhage within the cerebellum" as the immediate cause of death. The Svoboda (ne) za goramy [Freedom is (not) beyond the mountains] media outlet writes that a video, published and later deleted by opposition blogger Khasan Khalitov, shows Tumgoev’s body, not Dudarov’s as initially claimed.
On July 19, the Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case following the death of Kirill Poluyanov, a 20-year-old conscript from Ulan Ude, to establish whether someone incited him to commit suicide. Poluyanov’s mother claims to know who is responsible for her son’s death but has declined to disclose the names publicly at this time. Moreover, she stated that, together with her lawyers, she will push for the investigator to be replaced and the charges to be upgraded to murder. Authorities are expected to share the results of the medical examination with Poluyanov’s family on Monday. Earlier, we wrote about the circumstances of the incident and the petition calling for an investigation.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
According to the Baza Telegram channel, on July 13, a mass shootout in a village in Dagestan [Russia’s constituent republic] resulted in the death of 37-year-old Bozigit Alibekov, a participant in the war with Ukraine. Four more people were injured. Alibekov’s relatives claim he was shot by "Wahhabis because serving the Russians is haram." However, village residents assert that servicemen and participants in the invasion of Ukraine were on both sides of the conflict, which, according to official authorities, arose between relatives over an old land dispute. A criminal case has been initiated on charges of murder, attempted murder of two or more persons and arms trafficking. Due to the expected attendance of the deceased's brother, who is also participating in the war, at the funeral, the police fear an escalation of the conflict and further shootings. Reinforced police units are on duty in the village.
A mobilized resident of Kalmykia [Russia’s constituent republic], Kuanysh Ishchanov, has been sentenced to eight and a half years in a maximum security penal colony for the murder of a fellow soldier in the occupied territories of Ukraine. The Southern District Military Court in Rostov upheld the verdict of the occupational Kherson Garrison Military Court, which found that on Dec. 3, 2022, Ishchanov had an argument with another serviceman and shot him with an AK-74M assault rifle.
In the city of Vladimir, a court has sentenced contract soldier Aleksey Pankov to four years in a penal colony on charges of illegal possession and manufacture of weapons, as well as drug trafficking. According to the verdict, Pankov illegally purchased and stored 4.55 grams of a drug mixture. Additionally, he was found with illegal weapons: in 2022, Pankov bought a deactivated pistol from a store and, without a license, converted it into a firearm, also manufacturing 12 cartridges for it. The court considered Pankov's participation in the war as a mitigating factor.
The same court has sentenced another participant in the war with Ukraine, private contractor Dmitry Sarychev, to four years in a penal colony for car theft and going AWOL. Sarychev fled his military unit and went home "to rest from service" as his command did not grant him leave. When a taxi driver demanded payment from Sarychev, he assaulted the driver, pushed him out of the car, took the vehicle and drove away.
On July 19, an elderly man attempted to set fire to the draft office of the Primorsky district in Saint Petersburg. He threw a burning mixture at the closed door, but it bounced off, ignited on the porch, and the fire did not spread beyond the concrete steps. Later that same day, a 76-year-old resident of the Kemerovo region was detained on suspicion of arson. According to the detainee, he was coerced into committing the act by phone scammers who, under the pretext of hacking his personal account, extorted 350,000 rubles [$3,980] from him. To get his money back, they demanded he commit arson.
According to the Astra Telegram channel, Sergey Fyodorov, a 59-year-old resident of Moscow, was detained on July 9 on suspicion of setting fire to a relay cabinet near the Ostankino station on May 20. The fire only charred the outside of the cabinet, and train operations were not affected. It is unclear how the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Federal Security Service found Fyodorov one and a half months later. The detainee reportedly confessed to the crime. A criminal case has been opened against him under charges related to an act of terror.
According to Crimean resident, Uriye Aliyeva, she has been unsuccessfully trying to locate her husband for eight months. Server Aliyev disappeared along with his colleague Farhad Soliyev while they were working in Sevastopol. According to footage from a CCTV camera, the men were put into a car by individuals in civilian clothes and were taken to an unknown location. A police report states that Aliyev was detained by the FSB and fingerprinted at pre-trial detention center No. 2. However, the detention center denies this information, while the FSB claims Aliyev was never detained.
A court has issued the first sentence in the "Baymak case," sentencing Ilshat Ulyabaev to five years in a penal colony on charges of "mass unrest" and using violence dangerous to health against law enforcement officers. According to prosecutors, Ulyabaev "ran up to Lieutenant Colonel Rustam Asanov, the police chief of Sterlitamak, and delivered a flying kick to his head, followed by at least one more kick and one punch to the head," causing "minor bodily harm." Ulyabaev pleaded guilty to the charges. According to the For Human Rights project, Ulyabaev has eight underage children and a wife with cancer. Earlier, the Idel.Realii online media outlet [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] reported on the preparations for the trial.
Ainuru Amanbayeva, a single mother from the Volgograd region, has been sentenced to one and a half years on probation for damaging ballots with brilliant green. During the voting on March 15, 2024, she poured the substance into a ballot box after an unknown person offered her 30,000 rubles [$340] through WhatsApp to spoil the ballots. In delivering the sentence, the judge took into account that Amanbayeva committed the crime "as a result of psychological coercion" and that she has an eight-year-old child.
Assistance
In Buryatia, female prisoners have been tasked with making camouflage nets, "invisible ponchos" and stretchers to be sent to the frontline. Meanwhile, in the Zabaykalsky region [Russia's federal subject], a tourist from China has been engaged in weaving camouflage nets.
Transbaikal State University has allocated 20% of its state-funded places (225) for participants of the "special military operation" and their family members. Any unoccupied places will be included in the general competition. According to the university's rector, the region faces a "unique situation" with high demand for university admission among participants of the "special military operation" and their family members.
Miscellaneous
Nizhny Novgorod has launched a war-themed streetcar to foster "patriotism." The streetcar features paintings of various military vehicles on its sides. This project was funded by a grant from the Rosmolodyozh federal agency. There are plans to create ten "patriotic" streetcars and two metro cars.
The internal passport of human rights activist Aleksandr Kim, who left Russia, has been annulled. Previously, the founders of the Omsk Civil Association and Arkhangelsk student Olesya Krivtsova also reported having their passports annulled.
Longreads
Novaya Gazeta Europe [European edition of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta] shared the story of Anna Koshulko, a resident of Vladivostok who was raped and brutally murdered in 2021 by Georgy Povilayko, a man with a prior criminal record. This January, Povilayko returned home after three months of participating in the war, having been recruited from a penal colony. Povilayko served only one year of his 24-year sentence.