Mobilization in Russia for June 9-10, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
Details have emerged about a bill submitted by the government to the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia], proposing that driver's licenses not be revoked for war participants. According to the Kommersant daily newspaper, this bill would allow war participants who have had their licenses revoked by a court for serious traffic violations—such as drunk driving, causing accidents with injuries, or driving in the wrong lane—to reclaim their licenses and drive during mobilization, martial law or wartime. However, upon returning from service, they will have to surrender their licenses and wait for the previously assigned court term to expire. The time spent in the war will count towards their punishment. Thus, if the revocation period ends during service, they will not need to surrender their license but will still be required to pass an exam and provide a medical certificate. Military personnel who have received a state award will have their licenses returned without needing to pass the exam or provide a medical certificate. This right will also be granted to those discharged from service due to reaching the maximum age, health reasons or the expiration of their contract in a volunteer unit.
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
Bloomberg, citing European officials, has reported that Russian authorities are forcing African students to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense by threatening not to renew their student and work visas. Foreigners recruited into the army in this way are being deployed in combat operations, including those in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. According to one of Bloomberg's sources, Russia has allegedly been coercing migrants and foreign students to join the war effort since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. These soldiers are reportedly suffering particularly heavy casualties because they are often used in high-risk offensive operations.
Governor of the Primorsky region [Russia's federal subject] Oleg Kozhemyako has increased the sign-up bonus for volunteer fighters by 200,000 rubles [$2,250]. With this increase, the payment for signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense now amounts to 500,000 rubles [$5,620]. Together with the payment from the Ministry of Defense of 195,000 rubles [$2,190], new participants in the invasion of Ukraine will receive a lump sum of nearly 700,000 rubles [$7,870].
Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers
The list of mobilized soldiers killed in the war has been updated to include Nikolay Grigoryev from the Novgorod region, Pavel Kulakov from the Voronezh region, Yevgeny Pogorely from the Orenburg region and Yevgeny Ivanov from the Sverdlovsk region.
According to the Idel.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet, the number of people from the Volga region who have been killed in Ukraine has exceeded 15,000. In the past week alone, 15 regions reported the loss of 379 men, bringing the total in the Volga region to at least 15,001 as of the morning of June 10. Russia’s constituent republic of Bashkortostan has the highest number of casualties, with 2,141 deaths. In Russia's constituent Republic of Tatarstan, 1,874 residents have been killed, while the Perm region has lost 1,586 people. The Penza region and Russia's constituent Republic of Mordovia are at the lower end of the list, with 381 and 258 deaths, respectively.
According to the Demografiya Upala [Demography Decreased] Telegram channel, one out of every 13 men aged 18 to 49 from Buryatia [Russia's constituent republic] is currently on the frontline. The constituent Republic of Tyva has an even higher percentage, with 9.3% of men in this age group having gone to war. In contrast, in the Irkutsk region, the ratio is 1 in 40. The regions with the highest numbers of men at the front are among the least socially prosperous: Eastern Siberia, the Russian Far East and the European North—areas with the lowest male life expectancy, excluding Russia's constituent Republic of North Ossetia-Alania.
In the Volgograd region, the deployment of servicemen with serious injuries and those who have not fully recovered to a combat zone continues. Relatives of 38-year-old mobilized soldier Yuly Dryukov and 47-year-old contract soldier Sergey have reported this. Both soldiers were wounded and were either awaiting surgery or further rehabilitation. However, they were taken from their military unit without explanation and loaded into cars without being allowed to take their personal belongings and documents. Their current whereabouts are unknown to their families, as there has been no contact. Previously, mobilized soldier Aleksey Gaun was deployed to the frontline in a similar manner.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
A court in Moscow has ordered the Ministry of Defense to pay a former conscript soldier 400,000 rubles [$4,490] as compensation for moral damages. The victim had initially demanded 1,000,000 rubles [$11,200]. In 2022, the 19-year-old conscript soldier was shot in the abdomen by a fellow soldier while on combat duty in the Belgorod region. The shooter had failed to engage the safety on his assault rifle and accidentally pulled the trigger while picking it up from the ground. As a result, the young man lost a kidney. The case against the soldier who accidentally shot his fellow soldier was dismissed following reconciliation between the parties.
A court in Yekaterinburg has sentenced a resident, Aleksandr Neustroev, to three years in a penal settlement for verbally abusing a teenager wearing a hat with the letter "Z." Neustroev was found guilty of hooliganism involving violence motivated by political hatred. According to the prosecution, on April 21, 2023, Neustroev attempted to grab the hand of an 11-year-old student wearing a hat with the letter "Z" and used obscene language towards him. The end of the conflict was captured on video. The student's mother said his father serves in Rosgvardia (the Russian National Guard) and is currently at war. Law enforcement officers forced Neustroev to apologize on camera. Later, the boy's father filed a report accusing Neustroev of "discrediting" the Russian Armed Forces. Last summer, the criminal prosecution of Neustroev was halted due to "active repentance," but the Prosecutor General's Office succeeded in reverting the decision.
Assistance
Authorities in the Perm region have allocated 37 million rubles [$415,800] from the regional budget to construct a road to land plots gifted to participants in the war with Ukraine.
Children and Educational System
Additionally, the Perm region will allocate 12 million rubles for youth military training. The corresponding tender appeared on the government procurement contracts portal. The client is the regional branch of the Avangard Center for Patriotic Education. According to the technical specifications, the purpose of the procurement is "to prepare young men for fulfilling their constitutional duty to defend the Motherland—service in the RuAF" and to "acquire practical skills necessary for young men to quickly adapt to military service." The training duration for participants will span five days, with each session accommodating 90 to 120 young men.
Longreads
BBC News Russian and Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] have discovered that nearly 90% (17,000 out of 19,500) of Wagner Group mercenaries killed near Bakhmut were convicts. Yevgeny Prigozhin [deceased owner of the Wagner Group] recruited at least 48,336 inmates from penal colonies. This means that one in three convicts who joined the Wagner Group were killed in Bakhmut. However, Prigozhin himself had claimed that out of 20,000 casualties, half were volunteers who signed contracts from outside.
Relatives of Wagner Group mercenaries killed in action now have access to a monument in Goryachy Klyuch, Krasnodar region. The monument is engraved with over 20,000 ID tags of the fallen, which relatives use to search for their loved ones. Previously, the area was under reconstruction, and access has only recently been granted. However, the time spent at the memorial is limited, and photography is prohibited.