Mobilization in Russia for March 2-4, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
The State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia] approved a bill in its first reading that would criminalize the failure to report acts of sabotage.
Lawmakers introduced a bill in the State Duma that proposes adjusting the existing law on debt cancellations for military personnel. Current regulations require banks to write off the loans of servicemen or their close relatives if the soldier dies on the frontline or from war-related injuries, or is diagnosed with a first-degree disability. The new bill seeks to extend these benefits to second-degree disabled soldiers provided that a military medical board deems them unfit for service. The parliamentary committee that reviewed the amendments recommended adding the same requirement for first-degree disabled soldiers.
Authorities amended the list of roles available during alternative civilian service and added the following: exposition and artistic arrangement technician, motorcycle driver, tailor, storekeeper, preparer of semi-finished food items, sample taker, and gardener. Meanwhile, it is no longer possible to perform one’s alternative civilian service as an archivist or a lead-acid battery assembler.
The Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] Telegram channel noted that Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media plans to expand accreditation requirements for IT companies. These accreditations entitle their employees to a draft deferral from regular conscription. If a company loses its accreditation, its employees automatically lose their right to a deferral.
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
Head of Tatarstan [Russia’s constituent republic] Rustam Minnikhanov, in a meeting with Vladimir Putin, stated that 38,169 people from the republic have been sent to the war—this number includes both contract soldiers and mobilized men. In 2024 alone, according to Minnikhanov, 12,951 people were sent to the frontline, with the region exceeding its planned number of convict contracts.
The mother of an 18-year-old conscript from the Sverdlovsk region stated that her son was forced to sign a two-year contract while he was hospitalized with bronchitis—he had never planned to remain in service. According to her, officers at the training center in the town of Chebarkul intimidated the young man for four hours. She has appealed to the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers and the Military Prosecutor's Office in Chebarkul and the city of Yekaterinburg but has not yet received any responses.
The Military Prosecutor's Office of the Central Military District claimed that legal violations related to conscripts signing contracts in units of the 90th Tank Division in the Chebarkul garrison had been allegedly rectified. The report confirms previously published journalistic findings and states that unit officials were eager to meet their recruitment targets. However, parents of conscripts say the issue remains unresolved: many have filed lawsuits to challenge the legitimacy of the contracts, but the court cases are still ongoing. Previously, multiple reports have documented cases of conscripts being coerced into signing contracts and even instances of forged signatures on documents.
Investigators have suspended the bribery case against the former deputy governor of the Tyumen region Vyacheslav Vakhrin due to his deployment to the war in Ukraine. Along with him, businessman Aleksey Gotsyk, who was also implicated in the case, will be sent to fight in an assault brigade. Vakhrin and Gotsyk were arrested in June 2024. According to investigators, in December 2022, Vakhrin received a bribe from Gotsyk in the form of property benefits worth 18.7 million rubles [$208,800] when purchasing two apartments in Tyumen. Both defendants have denied the charges and pleaded not guilty.
Islam T., a 23-year-old native of Ingushetia [Russia’s constituent republic], who fatally beat a 32-year-old man during a street altercation in Beloretsk in November 2024, has also been sent to war. He was charged with grievous bodily harm and faced up to 15 years in prison, but his case has now been suspended.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta has reported a decline in Russia’s prison population, citing data from the Federal Penitentiary Service. Over the past two years, the number of inmates has dropped by 120,000. While approximately 433,000 prisoners were behind bars as of Jan. 1, 2023, that number had fallen to 313,000 by early 2025. In the fall of 2022, Russia began actively recruiting prisoners for the war—initially for the Wagner Group and, since 2023, for the Ministry of Defense.
Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers
150 servicemen who refused to fight and staged a "riot" in a tent camp in Yekaterinburg were forcibly sent to forward positions. Earlier, the military personnel stated they would rather go to prison than participate in combat operations, but they were escorted by military police onto a plane and transported to Rostov-on-Don. From there, the men were taken by buses to the occupied territories after having their phones confiscated. There, they were issued uniforms and are being prepared for combat missions. According to relatives, the men were not given food or water for almost two days.
Servicemen of the 85th Motorized Rifle Brigade have appealed to Putin asking him to take measures against the brigade's command, which "does not protect its personnel." Commanders are preventing servicemen who have been wounded or injured from appearing before a military medical board, sending everyone to forward positions instead. According to the soldiers, all the rights of military personnel are being violated, from medical care to payment issues.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
In the town of Nelidovo in the Tver region, a previously convicted war participant Sergey Chernyashkin stabbed his drinking companion to death. Chernyashkin was released from a penal colony to participate in the war in July 2024, and in early February 2025 he returned home after being wounded in the Kursk region.
The Makhachkala Garrison Military Court sentenced the service member Vladislav Sennikov to one year of probation for violating the military code of conduct resulting in serious bodily harm. According to the prosecution, on Aug. 10, 2024, Sennikov assaulted a fellow service member for taking the front seat in an official vehicle.
The woman who set fire to an ATM in the center of Perm on March 2 will spend the next two months in a pre-trial detention center, charged with intentional damage of property. The Baza Telegram channel reports that Yekaterina, a 46-year-old handicraft teacher, fell victim to scammers.
A court in Izhevsk sent three teenagers suspected of sabotage to pre-trial detention for two months. According to investigators, the 18-year-old and two 17-year-old residents of Udmurtia [Russia's constituent republic], along with "other unknown persons," set fire to a cell phone tower in the town of Votkinsk on Feb.15.
A court in Yaroslavl sentenced 24-year-old Ivan Khripko to 20 years in a maximum-security penal colony on charges of treason, attempted sabotage, training in sabotage activities, and illegal manufacture of explosives. Khripko was detained in December 2023. According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), he was involved in setting fire to a transformer at the Filino railway station in Yaroslavl and "providing assistance to Ukrainian intelligence services." As noted by Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet], in November, the Second Western District Military Court in Moscow began hearing a case against 19-year-old Anton Khripko from Balashikha, who is accused of organizing a terrorist group. It is possible that Ivan and Anton are brothers.
A resident of Belgorod has been convicted on charges of preparing for illegal border crossing and treason. The defendant’s name, case details, and sentence remain undisclosed.
FSB officersdetained a man from Voronezh on suspicion of treason for allegedly sending photographs to a representative of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). According to law enforcement, the 33-year-old man "initiated contact" with an SBU representative in 2024 and provided information about a classified military facility. He has been remanded in pre-trial detention; his name remains undisclosed.
Andrey Verianov, an expert on Inca civilization, geophysicist, and archaeologist, is in Moscow's Lefortovo pre-trial detention center on charges of treason. Verianov's arrest on charges of treason became public in December 2023. The details of the case remain unclear. Human rights activists believe his detention stems from his involvement in one of the protests against the invasion of Ukraine.
A woman from the "LPR" received a 10-year sentence in a penal colony for financing terrorism and extremist activities by donating to the Azov Brigade. According to investigators, she transferred 1,006 rubles [$11] to the Azov Brigade and 118 rubles [$1.32] to the Right Sector [coalition of right-wing Ukrainian organizations]. Her lawyer claims she sent the money for humanitarian purposes and confessed under pressure.
During the trial of Andrey Bogdanov, a local resident from Tatarstan, sentenced to four and a half years for repeated discrediting of the Armed Forces and attempted arson at a draft office, it was revealed that employees of the General Directorate for Countering Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, known as "Center E," is maintaining a database with dossiers on Russian citizens holding antiwar views.
The Second Western District Military Court has sentenced two Ukrainian pilots—Oleksandr Morozov and Dmitry Shimansky—to 22 and 26 years in a maximum security penal colony, respectively. According to investigators, in 2023, the pilots crossed the border in ultralight aircraft and were supposed to attack oil infrastructure facilities as well as sabotage an airfield in the Ivanovo region. The aircraft did not reach their targets, although Morozov managed to drop two bombs in the Bryansk region. The pilots were tried under multiple charges, including acts of terror, violation of international flight regulations, illegal border crossing and involvement in a terrorist organization. SOTAvision has published Morozov’s final statement.
Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, stated that during the full-scale war, 444 cases have been initiated under the article on military "fakes" against Russian citizens, including 141 in 2024. Under the article for "defamation of the Russian army," the Investigative Committee has initiated 171 criminal cases, including 72 last year. Bastrykin also reported that in 2024, 429 criminal cases related to "terrorism" have been "investigated" against 564 individuals.
Political prisoner Natalya Filonova has been released from a penal colony. She had been sentenced to two years and ten months of imprisonment on charges of assaulting police officers. Filonova was detained during a protest against mobilization in Ulan-Ude in September 2022 and was accused of attacking police officers. After her arrest, her adopted son with developmental disabilities was sent to an orphanage. Last year, she refused a pardon from Putin to avoid pleading guilty.
Croatia has denied asylum to a Russian citizen who was convicted in absentia on charges of treason for donating money to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Croatian authorities were not convinced by an entry in the Russian Interior Ministry's wanted database, as it lacked the date of the search notice and the specific criminal article—something common among most individuals on the wanted list. Instead, Croatian officials suggested he hide in Russia. The country’s Interior Ministry even cited population statistics from the region where the man previously lived, arguing that it was "densely populated enough" for him to evade persecution.
Assistance
A court in Kurgan region has confiscated an all-terrain vehicle from a local resident who had previously lost his driver's license for drunk driving. The vehicle was transferred to the Russian Ministry of Defense for use in the war. Meanwhile, patients of a psychiatric and neurological care home in Sobinka, Vladimir region, have been tasked with renovating an apartment for Ilya Chevtaev, a war veteran with disabilities.
In the Perm region, authorities have increased financial benefits for women who give birth to a child fathered by a participant in the war, as well as for female students. The payment, which previously was 134,000 rubles [$1,500], has now been raised to 140,000 rubles [$1,560].
Miscellaneous
Tatyana Moskalkova, Russia's Commissioner for Human Rights, has announced the return of 33 residents of the Kursk region to Russia, after they were evacuated to Ukraine due to attacks. According to Vladimir Sinelnikov, a Kursk activist, more than 100 residents of the border area are currently residing in temporary accommodation centers in the Ukrainian city of Sumy.
The press service of the Time of Heroes personnel program has reported that 27 out of 83 participants in the first wave of soldiers undergoing management training have been placed in administrative roles. Additionally, it was reported that Anton Shorokhov, a 35-year-old Russian army officer who took part in the invasion of Ukraine, has been hired by the Presidential Administration. Shorokhov was appointed as Putin's chief advisor "on monitoring and analyzing social processes." Additionally, Yury Slyusar, the governor of the Rostov region, has appointed Dmitry Vodolatsky, a participant in the war, as his deputy for issues related to state policy in the field of territorial defense forces.
The human rights organization Amnesty International has published "A Deafening Silence," a report on the systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war and their living conditions. The authors of the report conclude that the ill-treatment of POWs is a deliberate policy of the Russian authorities, rather than isolated incidents, and that Russia is grossly violating the Geneva Conventions, which guarantee POWs the right to regular correspondence, access to medical care and visits from representatives of international organizations.
On March 3, journalists from the Ukrainian investigative project Slidstvo.Info published a documentary called Vika’s Last Assignment, describing the circumstances of the death of Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who had been captured by Russian forces and died in custody. As the journalists found out, during her time in the Russian pre-trial detention center, Roshchyna lost up to 30 kilograms, and traces of torture were later discovered on her body.
Longreads
The Sever.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty online media outlet] tells the story of three men who contracted hepatitis during the war and are now seeking to be discharged from the army. Meanwhile, The Insider [independent Russian investigative media outlet] published an interview with soldiers who are considered missing in action.
A journalist from the Regional Aspect media outlet spoke with relatives of prisoners from Perm penal colonies who went missing in action in Ukraine. They got together to search for their relatives.