Mobilization in Russia for June 9-11, 2026 CIT Volunteer Summary

Authorities and Legislation

The State Duma [lower house of Russia's Federal Assembly] passed a bill in its third reading that prohibits the deportation of foreigners who served under contract with the Ministry of Defense and participated in combat operations. The amendments prohibit denying them entry, declaring their stay undesirable, deporting them, reducing their permitted stay, or refusing to issue them work permits or temporary or permanent residence permits. The authorities also cannot cancel previously issued documents. The bill will apply retroactively, canceling similar decisions issued since Feb. 24, 2022, against combat veterans.

The State Duma passed a bill through all three readings simultaneously to amend the Budget Code, authorizing the government to increase spending beyond the planned 44 trillion rubles [$610 billion] without further consultations with lawmakers. The government may also withhold figures for additional spending, including military expenditures. The new measure temporarily suspends the limit on domestic government debt growth. The bill also changes the procedure for restructuring regional debts owed to the federal budget. Regions facing a shortage of funds for current expenses (with a coverage ratio below 0.9) can request money from the government, which will issue a loan at a 0.1% interest rate until the following month. Furthermore, the legislation allows regions to defer repayment of a third of their existing budget loans until 2030. The bill also permits regions to allocate funds for expenses related to the "special military operation," exempting them from a rule requiring 50% of such funds to be spent on housing and utilities.

Putin has signed a law granting the Central Bank of Russia, Rosinkas [the state cash collection service], Sberbank [Russia's largest bank], and the special postal communications service the authority to jam, intercept, and destroy drones over protected facilities without involving law enforcement or security agencies. The law applies to all categories of unmanned vehicles, including aerial, ground, surface, and underwater drones. The list of employees authorized to make such decisions will be determined by the Central Bank and the government. Earlier, RBC [Russian media group] reported, citing sources, that the authorities had allowed private companies to purchase large-caliber weapons and specialized equipment to defend against drone attacks.

Army Recruitment

Open databases containing the names of draft-eligible students were discovered on the websites of Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, Moscow Aviation Institute, and MIREA [Russian technological university]. At PFUR, the resource was titled "Database of Conscripts," while at MIREA and MAI it appeared as a registry of draft-eligible students. The databases allowed users to search for students subject to conscription by name and date of birth and access detailed information about them, including their year of study, faculty, student ID number, expected graduation year, and other personal data. At MAI, searches could only be conducted using an identification number. The registries also included female medical residency students. After the databases were reported in the media, the relevant pages on the websites of all three universities were taken offline.

Recruitment efforts targeting university students for service in UAV units are continuing. At the Russian University of Transport, a lecturer promoted military service during an online class. Meanwhile, Kazan National Research Technical University hosted a video conference in which a serviceman from the Unmanned Systems Forces and an officer from a contract military service recruitment center in the city of Kazan encouraged students to sign military contracts. Earlier, the Vot Tak [Like This] media outlet reported on the growing use of video conferences with MoD personnel as a tool for recruiting students into the Unmanned Systems Forces.

Women with no connection to the military or medical professions have been offered contract-based military service. Recruiters contact them by phone, identifying themselves as employees of the draft office, and offer to sign up for contract-based military service or appear at the draft office in person to sign a refusal. A resident of the Kaliningrad region received such a call after enrolling her child in kindergarten. Other women's phone numbers were likely obtained through leaked databases.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

The Chita Garrison Court has sentenced serviceman Ivan Zverzheyev to nine years in a penal settlement for violating traffic rules while intoxicated resulting in the deaths of two people. Zverzheyev has two prior convictions.

In Russia's constituent Republic of Buryatia, Aleksandr Stepanov, a 34-year-old former veteran of the war in Ukraine, has been detained. A court previously suspended consideration of his criminal case and issued an in absentia arrest warrant for the serviceman after he fled house arrest and failed to appear at a hearing. Since 2022, Stepanov has been involved in at least five criminal cases involving illegal possession of firearms, intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm, hooliganism and car theft.

A mobilized soldier convicted of going AWOL has been released on parole less than a year after his sentence. The man participated in combat operations for more than two years before leaving his duty station. He later voluntarily reported to a military investigation department. In February 2025, a court sentenced him to two years in a penal settlement. After the verdict entered into force, the serviceman was discharged from military service. Some time later, he petitioned the court for parole, which was granted after he had served less than half of his sentence.

In Saint Petersburg, officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB) have detained a man suspected of high treason. According to investigators, he transferred an unspecified amount of money in US dollars to an international charitable organization allegedly affiliated with the Ukrainian military in order to provide financial support to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and "Ukrainian terrorist organizations." The name of the detainee and the name of the organization were not disclosed.

In Moscow, officers from the FSB also detained a foreign national born in 1990 who is suspected of preparing an assassination attempt on an employee of the MoD. According to the detainee, he fled his home country to Spain because he was wanted in connection with a criminal case. He lived illegally in Europe for three years, after which, on the advice of a Ukrainian acquaintance, he contacted the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). He was offered "European documents" in exchange for carrying out several assignments. He arrived in Russia in February 2026, after which, following instructions from his handlers, he retrieved a handgun with a suppressor and 16 rounds of ammunition from a cache. He then recorded a video for his handlers showing firearms training. Then he checked whether the potential target was at their home and workplace addresses. It turned out that the target was not at those locations, and the handler instructed him to hide the weapon and fly to Moldova for training in assembling an explosive device. At what exact stage after that the man was detained is not specified.

In Moscow, two teenagers were detained who, according to law enforcement, are suspected of being involved in planting an explosive device on the car of an employee of a defense-industrial enterprise. A criminal case has been opened against them on charges of attempted murder, illegal distribution of explosives, and illegal manufacture of explosives. According to investigators, a minor girl, acting on instructions from handlers, collected a package containing an explosive device and handed it over to a young man. He placed the device and a GPS tracker under the car of the enterprise employee. The young man managed to do this, but the device was discovered and later neutralized by controlled detonation. The suspects were detained "at the scene," according to the Investigative Committee. This took place in a city parking lot on Vvedenskogo Street in the Konkovo district of Moscow. As identified by the ASTRA and Agentstvo media outlets, the site is home to the Polyus Research Institute, which specializes in quantum electronics and laser technologies and is part of the Rostec state corporation.

A city court in Blagoveshchensk fined Aleksandr Khitsyuk, a sawmill worker from the town of Zavitinsk, 65,000 rubles [$900] for failing to report a planned act of sabotage. Prosecutors said Khitsyuk did not inform the FSB that an underage acquaintance had set fire to an electrical transformer substation for a reward of 15,000 rubles [$210] at the direction of an anonymous contact on Telegram.

The Second Western District Military Court sentenced Artyom Proreshny, a 40-year-old resident of Voronezh, to nine years in prison on charges of preparing to join a terrorist organization and making public statements deemed to advocate terrorism. According to investigators, Proreshny, who held negative views of the war in Ukraine, decided to join the Freedom of Russia Legion in May 2023. Between May and July of that year, he repeatedly sent messages to the organization’s Telegram account asking to be accepted into its ranks, but never received a response. Prosecutors also accused Proreshny of attempting to incite an unspecified number of people to assassinate Putin. The allegation stemmed from two comments he posted in May and December 2024 that authorities said contained indications of support for the ideology of the Freedom of Russia Legion, endorsement of incursions by the AFU into Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions, and calls for violence against Putin.

In Moscow, 37-year-old Spartak football fan Dmitry Ionov was sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony on charges of justifying terrorism and participating in the activities of a terrorist organization. Ionov was detained in August 2025. Law enforcement officials accused him of painting several graffiti messages in support of the Russian Volunteer Corps, as well as intending to travel to fight on Ukraine’s side. Ionov did not dispute creating the graffiti but denied any connection to the Russian Volunteer Corps. He also alleged that law enforcement officers tortured him in the presence of his disabled son, who was a minor.

The Russian-installed Kherson Regional Court sentenced a 58-year-old local woman to 12 years in a penal colony on charges of treason. Investigators alleged that she transferred the equivalent of 1,566 rubles [$22] to a foreign bank account intended to finance and provide logistical support to the AFU. The woman’s name and other details of the case have not been disclosed.

A court in Saratov sentenced 32-year-old local resident Aleksey Yeliseyev to 14 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of treason. According to law enforcement officials, between May 2022 and January 2023, Yeliseyev printed and posted leaflets displaying the symbols of an unnamed Ukrainian organization that Russia has designated a terrorist organization, and sent photographs of the leaflets to handlers via Telegram. The court also found that Yeliseyev collected and passed information about Russian contract soldiers and mobilized servicemen to Ukrainian authorities.

Longreads

Astra reports that since March 2026, conscripts in the 252nd Motorized Rifle Regiment in Boguchar, Voronezh region, have been pressured into signing military contracts. Earlier, Echo reported that the regiment continued coercing conscripts into signing contracts despite a criminal case opened in November 2025 over the practice.