Mobilization in Russia for June 14-15, 2023 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
According to TASS [Russian state-owned news agency], measures seeking to align wages of law enforcement officers serving in the border regions of Russia and allowances paid to draftees and conscripts were discussed at the meeting Vladimir Putin has recently held with "war correspondents." To that end, Putin requested respective amendments to be made to the Russian legislation.
"Elections" in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories (the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions) will be held on Sept. 10, 2023, Russia's Central Electoral Commission officially announced. As a result of amendments adopted by Russian lawmakers, elections in these regions can take place under martial law.
Services provided by draft offices can now be accessed by the public via the Internet from the Gosuslugi public services portal. The portal offers a range of functions allowing the user to request a military reserve registration or removal from military registration, modify personal details, or book an appointment with a draft officer. Yet, an in-person visit to the draft office is still required in order to complete removal: the online service only enables the draft office to pre-screen a removal request. The innovation was thoroughly examined by the Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] project.
1.3 billion rubles were allocated by the government this year to finance Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation aimed to support Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine. Chairwoman of the foundation Anna Tsivilyova presented a report at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum [SPIEF] on "working towards an inclusive society" through measures designed to support the war veterans. In her opinion, other than employment services, veterans should also be given a space to contribute to the patriotic education of youth. Tsivilyova pointed out that the foundation would provide assistance to all military personnel including veterans from private military companies.
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
The Idel.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet drew attention to the fact that the Russian Ministry of Defense has started advertising military contract service massively on social networks. For example, a network of job search groups on the VKontakte social network in different cities of the country published identical advertisements with information that a one-stop contract military service recruitment facility has been opened in Moscow. The advertisement for military contract service appeared on public transport and billboards in Dalnegorsk, Primorsky region, and at the oncology center in Saint Petersburg.
According to the decree of Governor of the Vladimir region Aleksandr Avdeyev, conscript soldiers who agree to sign a contract to participate in the war in Ukraine will receive a one-time payment of 100,000 rubles [$1190]. The same amount is now given to the fighters of volunteer fighter units.
Mobilized Soldiers and Volunteer Fighters
The list of Russian mobilized soldiers killed in the war against Ukraine is growing by the day. Among those newly added are Ivan Nagibin from the Rostov region, Dmitry Samokhin from the Kursk region, Dmitry Belyaev and Andrey Solovyov from the Tver region, Pavel Kozenko from the Novosibirsk region, Yevgeny Zharkoy and Pavel Novokreshchin from Buryatia [Russia’s constituent republic], Gennady Markov, Aleksey Spesivtsev, Nikolay Ponomaryov, Aleksandr Konopatov, as well as Sergey Nika and Yevgeny Burambaev from the Volgograd region.
The Sibir.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet thoroughly examined the story of conscript soldiers from Sverdlovsk region who were killed in early June in the Belgorod region, and also told about the struggle of mothers from the Sakhalin region to prevent their children from being sent to the border.
The Astra media outlet writes that the illegal basement for refuseniks in Zaitseve, Luhansk region, is operating again. Moreover, its journalists report on the opening of a new site of illegal detention of Russian servicemen in the village of Rozsypne, Troitske district, Luhansk region. In total, they have uncovered 15 such sites since the beginning of the invasion.
Over the past three months, journalists from the Lyudi Baikala [People of Baikal] independent media outlet discovered three cemeteries in the Irkutsk region where Russian military personnel are buried. These deaths went mostly unreported—the journalists calculated that obituaries were published only in every third case.
Head of Russia's constituent Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov announced that the Chechen Akhmat battalion is now defending the borders of the Belgorod region. Its fighters took up positions at the border checkpoints near the villages of Nekhoteyevka and Kozinka.
Complaints of looting by Russian military personnel, addressed to Governor of the Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov by Novaya Tavolzhanka residents, garnered the attention of the Astra media outlet. Reportedly, servicemen are robbing the houses of evacuated residents. In one instance, they stole a trailer and a quad bike. They make a mess while staying in empty houses in search of valuable items. Similar claims were reported by journalists of the Govorit NeMoskva independent media outlet.
The story of mobilized soldier Ivan Derevyanko, which we mentioned in one of our previous summaries, continues to unfold. After a complaint by Arthur Gayduk, member of the Pskov regional legislative assembly, the order to transfer Ivan to a military unit in Ussuriysk was rescinded. He remains in his original unit, however, even though he should have been discharged on medical grounds.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings, and Incidents
The Makhachkala Garrison Military Court sentenced a contract soldier to 5.5 years in prison for going AWOL during the mobilization period. The man left his service in the "DPR" and went on vacation, but was later apprehended. The court session took place directly in the assembly hall of the military unit.
In Saint Petersburg, a contract soldier who fled his unit was sentenced to 6.5 years in a penal colony. The private left the unit in Sevastopol on Mar. 2, 2022. He initially went to Moscow and then to Saint Petersburg, where he was apprehended in December.
The Abakan Garrison Military Court has considered over 20 cases of absence without official leave since mobilization began. Some of the decisions have already been published, indicating that men with suspended sentences were required to continue their service in the army.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) officers reported the detention of a resident of the Bryansk region who was planning an act of terror and collecting information about security forces in border areas with Ukraine. The FSB also apprehended a 15-year-old school student from the Sverdlovsk region who is suspected of studying terrorist methods. He may face several years in a correctional colony.
A relay cabinet was set on fire on the railway in the Stavropol district of the Samara region, at the Kanal-Piskaly section. However, the arson did not affect the operation of the equipment or train traffic.
On Jun. 14, Anatoly Berezikov, a 40-year-old detainee, died in custody in Rostov-on-Don. The reason for his arrest may have been the posting of leaflets for the Hochu Zhit [I Want to Live] Ukrainian government project, which helps Russian soldiers to voluntarily surrender. The law enforcement managed to keep Berezikov in custody from the moment of his initial detention on May 11 until the day of his death through so-called "conveyor arrests"—a series of short-term arrests for minor offenses, issued exactly on the day of what could've been release date. Previously, Berezikov told his lawyer about being tortured by the police. The police claimed that Anatoly Berezikov committed suicide.
Oleg Borisenko, ex-head of the Russky [Russia] military patriotic club, was released from pre-trial detention and placed under house arrest, according to his lawyer. The petition to change his pretrial restriction had orders and medals attached that Borisenko was awarded for participating in wars in Yugoslavia and Syria. Previously, we reported that criminal charges against Borisenko were brought due to two videos he recorded calling on his students not to go to the war against Ukraine.
Assistance
State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia] member Yana Lantratova proposed creating a unified state platform for collecting aid to support the "special military operation." According to Lantratova, fraudsters have increased their activity throughout 2022, and such a platform will eliminate the fraud.
Residents of Mordovia [Russia's constituent republic] sent two UAZ off-road vehicles to war. Another UAZ vehicle was donated by the residents of Izhma village, Russia's constituent republic of Komi. It is a second UAZ from this village, and it's intended for Territorial Defense Forces where mobilized locals serve. The head of Turukhansky district, Krasnoyarsk region, delivered an aid package to "LPR" fighters including quadcopters, bulletproof vests, binoculars, and first-aid kits. Another aid package for servicemen was sent by the Engels, Saratov region, branch of the Pogranichnoye Bratstvo [Border Brotherhood] organization. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs from the Kemerovo region started to form yet another shipment for the warzone.
Nazar Shevchenko, deputy head of the Trans-Urals Department of Health, stated that rehabilitation centers for participants in the war in Ukraine are being created in the Kurgan region. Governor of the Pskov region Mikhail Vedernikov announced the construction of a new military hospital building in Pskov. This will double the number of available hospital beds.
The authorities of the Belgorod region spent 11 million rubles for a presentation stand for the region at the SPIEF forum, as noted by the Mozhem Ob'yasnit [We Can Explain] Telegram channel. At the same time, in the budget for 2023, the Belgorod region allocated only 6.4 million rubles for subsidies for residents of the region who lost their homes due to shelling. Residents of burned, bombed, and destroyed houses in the Shebekinsky district will get a total of 1 million rubles.
Local members of the United Russia party [Putin's ruling party] devised a plan to involve residents of a Biysk nursing home in weaving camouflage nets. In Irkutsk, employees of a scientific library have already begun to weave camouflage nets for the military. In two months, female residents of the village of Bolshoy Lug, Irkutsk region, made 580 square meters of camo nets.
Children are still being involved in weaving camouflage nets. School students in Udmurtia [Russia’s constituent republic] are making camouflage nets and helmet covers on their summer holidays. Students and teachers of the School No. 12 in Noyabrsk, Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region, have been involved in weaving camouflage nets. Meanwhile, 47 camouflage nets made by students of the Chuvash State Pedagogical University have already been sent to war.
Children
Sergey Chernyshov, the founder of the Novocollege independent college in Novosibirsk, has left his administrative positions as a result of pressure by authorities. After the war had begun, he refused to organize the disciplinary work with the students arrested at anti-war protests and give "Talks About Important Things." On May 26, the Ministry of Justice declared Chernyshov a "foreign agent."
At SPIEF, Minister of Education Sergey Kratsov has reported that the new history textbooks for school grades 5 to 9 [10 to 16 y.o.] will be finished in 2024. A section on the war in Ukraine will be added in the textbooks. Previously, Kravtsov presented the new history textbook for grades 10 and 11 [16 to 18 y.o.], which students will get on Sept. 1.
In Buryatia, the father of a killed serviceman gave a talk to first- to third-graders [7 to 10 y.o.]. He wished them to "do well in studies, go in for sports and temper their character."
The Avantgarde youth training center for patriotic military education will be opened in Kronstadt, Leningrad region. It will give classes in military service basics and various military specialties. The trainees will be 15 to 17 years old; a session will last five days.
The Presidential Grants Fund chose the winners of this year’s second phase. The funding was mainly provided to war-related projects. The Sota media outlet has covered the winners in more detail. The Fund also allocated 17.2 million rubles [$206,000] for training teenagers in UAV operation. For reference, a bit more than 2 million rubles [$24,000] had been spent for this purpose over all the previous years.
The Syerditaya Chuvashia [Angry Chuvashia] Telegram channel prepared another digest of school propaganda. In particular, the article cites such instances as a school principal going to the war as a volunteer fighter and celebrating Russia Day on the knees.
Miscellaneous
Half of the Russians who left the country in the fall after the beginning of mobilization have returned, Russian presidential aide Maksim Oreshkin said at SPIEF, citing banking statistics.
Mobilized Russians told The Insider [independent Russian investigative media outlet] what they did to avoid going to the war: one became a defendant in a criminal case, another went to a psychiatric clinic, and a third fled to Russia from the war in Donbas in 2014, and now has been refusing to leave his unit for several months.
The article by economic geographer Natalia Zubarevich discusses how the Russian economy is changing under the influence of war and related sanctions. The overall average indicators conceal multidirectional dynamics, while the optimistic figures hide a process of structural transformation connected with the abnormal economic conditions during wartime.
In the municipal libraries of Tomsk "We are for RuZZia" themed shelves appeared.