Mobilization in Russia for June 27-28, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
Sri Lanka has requested compensation for the families of its citizens who were killed or injured while serving in the Russian Army. A delegation from Sri Lanka raised this issue during a meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko and Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin, held on June 26 to 27. According to the Sri Lankan embassy, the discussion focused on 17 killed Sri Lankans, the dire situation of those with whom contact is impossible and the possibility of early contract termination and repatriation of the country's citizens from the Russian Armed Forces. Sri Lanka proposed the creation of a joint working committee to regularly address the issues faced by Sri Lankans serving in the Russian Army. State media did not cover the two-day visit by the diplomats. According to estimates, between 800 and 2,000 Sri Lankan citizens are participating in the war, as reported by France24.
Vladimir Putin has signed a decree "On Monthly Compensation Payments to Certain Categories of Military Personnel on Contract-Based Military Service." According to this decree, retired military personnel and law enforcement officers who have signed a contract with the Russian Army will receive their monthly pension in full, in addition to their regular compensation.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, stated that residents of border villages must extinguish fires themselves because Ministry of Emergency Situations vehicles are targeted by drones. Fire extinguishers will be distributed to citizens for this purpose.
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
In the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region, law enforcement officers conducted another raid against migrants. During the roundup, 16 people were checked, six of whom had obtained Russian citizenship but had not registered for military service. They were issued draft notices.
Two cities in the Perm region [Russia’s federal subject] have introduced additional payments for local residents who sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense to participate in the war. In the town of Osa, the amount will be 70,000 rubles [$820], and in the town of Cherdyn, it will be 50,000 rubles [$580]. The money for these payments will come from the local budget.
The Pskov territorial defense forces, established in July 2023, numbered 1,858 people by the end of last year, according to a report on the implementation of the region’s socio-economic development strategy. The document specifies that members of the territorial defense forces assist in combating drones. Earlier, Mikhail Vedernikov, the governor of the Pskov region, stated that the territorial defense forces comprised 2,000 people.
Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers
The list of mobilized soldiers killed in the war has been updated to include Ilkham Yarashev and Farhad Yusupov from Russia’s constituent Republic of Tatarstan, Maksim Orlov and Sergey Shitov from the Kirov region, Vitaly Vityutnev, Sergey Dubinin, Stas Ivanov, Ochir Oshorov, Victor Dimov, Alexey Malyshev and Andrey Stanishevsky from Buryatia[Russia's constituent republic], as well as Vladimir Terekhin from the Irkutsk region.
Based on open sources, Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] and BBC News Russian, together with volunteers, have verified the names of 57,722 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine, including 7,162 mobilized soldiers. Over the past week, the list has been updated with the names of 864 military personnel, including 346 draftees. Journalists note that at least 40 Russians born between 2005 and 2006 have been killed in the last year of the war in Ukraine. The youngest of them, Kirill Chistyakov from Smolensk, lived for 18 years, one month and 27 days.
A group of relatives of 21 Russian soldiers, including both mobilized men and volunteer fighters, some of whom were recruited from penal colonies, contacted the Astra Telegram channel. These soldiers, serving in various units, were placed in a basement jail in the village of Zaitseve, Luhansk region, for refusing to go on an assault at the end of 2023. They were subsequently sent to forward positions, after which contact with them was lost. Most of the soldiers disappeared in January and were declared missing in April. Almost none of the relatives received official notification about the status of their loved ones. According to the women, the actual number of missing soldiers is much higher.
​Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
A court in Volgograd has sentenced Aleksey Zharikov, a resident who returned from the war in Ukraine, to seven years in a penal colony for beating his grandmother to death with a wooden chair. On the day of the murder, after finishing work, Zharikov consumed one and a half liters of beer and then had a conflict with his grandmother. In a fit of rage, he took a wooden chair and struck the woman several times on the head and at least 12 times on the body. The elderly woman managed to give testimony while in the hospital but later succumbed to her injuries. Zharikov, however, denied his guilt. The court considered his participation in the "special military operation" as a mitigating circumstance in delivering the sentence.
The wife of Lieutenant Colonel Irek Magasumov, who was sentenced to 11 years for the murder of a young woman, has stated that he will be sent to fight again. She, along with a lawyer, is currently trying to prove Magasumov's innocence, claiming that the woman was allegedly shot by his subordinate, Pavel Yaskevich, who initially confessed but later recanted his testimony.
A court in Saratov has sentenced Dmitry Kiryukhin, a participant in the war with Ukraine, to four years in a penal colony and fined him 30,000 rubles [$350]) for assaulting his neighbors. The victims fear that Kiryukhin will be sent back to the frontline. In September 2022, Kiryukhin was mobilized for the war with Ukraine, and on Nov. 14, 2023, he returned on leave to his hometown of Atkarsk, where he spoke at a "lesson of courage" in a school. Later that evening, he brutally assaulted his elderly neighbors, a married couple, who were hospitalized with suspected closed-head injuries, concussions and skull fractures. Kiryukhin was detained several days later, following media coverage. Initially, a criminal case was opened against him for attempted murder. However, during the investigation, the charges were reclassified to the lesser offense of "hooliganism involving violence." In addition to the assault, he was found guilty of using violence against a government representative and insulting a police officer. The prosecution had requested a six-year sentence in a penal colony for Kiryukhin.
The Garrison Military Court in Moscow has sentenced a 41-year-old mobilized soldier from the Belgorod region to four years in a penal colony for going AWOL. The man, citing "unwillingness to participate in the war, as well as his deteriorated moral and physical condition," left his unit and went home. Seven months later, he voluntarily reported to the military investigators.
In the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian law enforcement officers have detained two local residents, aged 20 and 22, on charges of "espionage." According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), the detainees were transmitting information to the Main Directorate of Intelligence about the locations of RuAF units in the town of Tokmak "to launch missile and artillery strikes against them."
Anton Leonyuk, a resident of the village of Aeroport in the Chelyabinsk region, has been sentenced to 15 years in a maximum-security penal colony for sabotage on the railway. According to law enforcement officers, in August 2023, he set fire to a relay cabinet at the Balandino station.
The Amur Regional Court has sentenced 38-year-old Sergey Chunosov, a resident of Blagoveshchensk, to six years in a maximum-security penal colony for preparing to commit high treason. Chunosov was arrested last July near the airport in Blagoveshchensk. According to FSB officers, he attempted to fly to Moscow "for subsequent service in the Russian Volunteer Corps in Ukraine." Law enforcement officers, who did not identify themselves or show credentials, placed a bag over Chunosov's head, leading to resistance on his part. Eventually, according to his lawyer Yuri Levchenko, Chunosov pleaded guilty.
Svetlana Borovkova from Borisoglebsk was found guilty of obstructing the exercise of electoral rights or the work of electoral commissions and was sentenced to 120 hours of compulsory labor. During the presidential elections in March, the woman mixed brilliant green with soda and poured it into a ballot-box at a polling station on the first day of voting. According to investigators, she did this at the behest of fraudsters to whom she had previously transferred 1.2 million rubles [$14,000].
Assistance
According to Alexey Tsydenov, the Head of Buryatia [Russia’s constituent republic], in 2022 and 2023, the republic spent 4.627 billion rubles [$53.97 million] on gear, various weapons and incentive payments to war participants. Meanwhile, in Perm, plans are underway to allocate land plots with a total area of 60,000 square meters to war participants and large families.
Children and Educational System
Nikita Anisimov, the rector of the Higher School of Economics, announced that the university is collecting funds for reconnaissance drones through the fund associated with Vladimir Solovyev [Russian propagandist]. Meduza [international Russian-language online media outlet] reports on what else Anisimov said in an interview with the so-called Luhansk Information Center.
Miscellaneous
Anti-war activists have published Russian translations of 18 poems written by Nazi authors. According to independent journalist Andrey Zakharov, the activists registered an account under the fictional name of Gennady Rakitin on the VKontakte social network [Russia’s version of Facebook]. Some of the poems were slightly altered: references to Germany were replaced with references to Russia, and an "unnamed stormtrooper" was changed to an "unnamed fighter of the Wagner Group." The activists fabricated all details of the "poet's" profile and used AI to generate his photo. In less than a year, 95 members of the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia], 28 senators and several pro-Russian "war correspondents" friended "Rakitin" on the social network. Moreover, in June 2024,"Rakitin" reached the semi-finals and won an award at the All-Russian Patriotic Poetry Competition named after Soviet poet Aleksandr Tvardovsky.
According to Vyorstka media outlet, the state program of compatriot resettlement, which facilitates the relocation of tens of thousands of individuals to Russia annually, has seen a decline in popularity among men aged 18 to 30 over the past two years. Statistics from the Ministry of Internal Affairs indicate that in 2023, conscription-age foreigners submitted three times fewer applications for voluntary resettlement compared to 2021. The number of program participants also fell for other age groups, although to a lesser extent. Overall, the appeal of voluntary resettlement nearly halved: 43,000 applications were recorded in 2021, whereas only 23,000 individuals applied in 2023. Additionally, 35% of foreigners who had applied to take part in the program in 2021 decided not to relocate after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Longreads
Mediazona detailed the story of a 52-year-old taxi driver from Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Vladimir Zolotaryov, who set fire to the porch of the Rosgvardia [the Russian National Guard] department in his hometown. Despite there being no casualties resulting from the incident, Zolotaryov was accused of committing an act of terror and sentenced to 18 years in a penal colony.