Mobilization in Russia for March 4-6, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
Vladimir Putin stated that convicts recruited for the war against Ukraine should receive combat veteran status. He also proposed a unified nationwide standard to support the families of those involved in the invasion, while allowing regional authorities to enhance those provisions with their own measures.
Lawmakers in the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia] introduced a bill to amend the Land Code to subsidize land plots for war veterans and their families. If the measure passes, these individuals could obtain land from government or municipal holdings at no cost. If a region lacks suitable parcels, authorities must provide monetary compensation. The bill’s authors also propose allocating land along borders with NATO member states.
Faridaily, citing current members of parliament and a source close to the Presidential Administration, reports that the Kremlin plans to fill 100 out of the 450 seats in the next State Duma with veterans of the war against Ukraine. According to these sources, the administration envisions this new parliament, slated for election in fall 2026, as a post-war legislature. United Russia [Putin’s ruling party] will put forward military candidates in its national pool of contenders, as well as in local constituency races decided by a single winner. However, the Kremlin remains deeply concerned about "whether former military personnel will prove manageable once elected."
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
Twenty-one years after the alternative civilian service law came into effect, the number of young people who opted for civilian service instead of military service has remained below 1% of the total number eligible for conscription. This is based on statistics from the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), which were highlighted by the Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] Telegram channel. According to Rosstat, the number of those undergoing alternative civilian service nearly doubled in 2024 compared to 2021: in the first half of 2024, there were 2,022 such individuals, whereas in 2021, the figure stood at 1,026. Lawyers note that securing the right to alternative civilian service remains challenging in practice as the percentage of refusals from military enlistment offices remains high.
Yandex has hidden data on the number of views for "social" ads promoting contract military service in the Russian army, according to an investigation by the Vyorstka media outlet. Previously, Vyorstka estimated that such ads had been displayed more than 1 billion times in 2024. The primary advertiser, the Ministry of Digital Development, further increased ad impressions in February. Ads for contract military service were shown over 284 million times—an 8% increase from January. On Feb. 13, the ministry set a new daily record with more than 17.4 million impressions. Additionally, in January, Yandex scaled back transparency in publishing social ad data, restricting search functionality for banners. The social ad report page no longer allows users to find specific examples of ads from the Ministry of Digital Development or other advertisers by name, although the banners remain in the database.
Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers
A 20-year-old conscript from the Chelyabinsk region, Vyacheslav Khairullin, was brutally assaulted inside his military unit in the town of Sibirtsevo, in the Primorsky region [Russia's federal subject]. Khairullin was drafted into the army in the summer of 2024, but on Feb. 12, he stopped making contact. On Feb. 21, his mother managed to reach the unit by phone, but she was told that her son was "not on the lists," and they refused to provide any information. It wasn’t until the next day that Khairullin himself made contact, revealing that he had been beaten by a "group of individuals" inside the unit. According to his mother, he was unconscious for seven days, and "his kidneys were completely damaged." Now, he is set to be discharged from the hospital and sent back to the same unit where he was assaulted. Meanwhile, no criminal case has been opened regarding the attack.
A soldier recorded a video while boarding a plane in Novosibirsk with a group of troops being sent back to the war. In the footage, he complains that most of them are mobilized soldiers with serious health issues. However, they are not being given the opportunity to undergo a military medical board examination. He states that he has been classified as second-group disabled, a designation for moderate to severe disabilities.
The Ukrainian intelligence community InformNapalm has published a presentation on cases of service evasion among Russian soldiers found in leaked correspondence of Russian officials. The Frontelligence Insight team, founded by Ukrainian military analyst Tatarigami, has analyzed the leaked data and the lists of soldiers who went AWOL in the Southern Military District and tallied up 50,554 documented cases of military service evasion in the Russian army in 2024. 22,500 cases of desertion were recorded in the Southern Military District, 13,700 in the Central Military District, 7,700 in the Moscow Military District, 3,300 in the Eastern Military District, and 3,000 in the Leningrad Military District. Fifty-eight percent of desertion cases in the Southern Military District are related to military formations of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, where men were forcibly sent to the frontline in large numbers. The Eastern Military District initiated criminal proceedings in eighty-six percent of cases, which is the highest percentage of all military districts. Thus, of the more than 50,000 refuseniks and deserters, only about 20,000 were prosecuted.
According to Omsk Civil Society, based on a list of casualties and missing persons compiled by local activists, at least 15% of those killed in the war from the Omsk region (171 out of 1,400) were ethnic Kazakhs. An additional 40 individuals are listed as missed in action. Official government census data indicates that ethnic Kazakhs make up only 4.1% of the region’s population—just over 69,000 people. This means that their share among the war casualties is nearly four times higher than their proportion of the population.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
In Rostov-on-Don, 60-year-old serviceman Gennady Kuznetsov of the 102nd Motorized Rifle Regiment fatally stabbed his 32-year-old fellow soldier, Anton Zarechnev, after returning from the war. A criminal case for murder has been initiated, and Kuznetsov has been detained.
In another incident, a war veteran stabbed two men to death in a car on the Moscow-Chelyabinsk highway in the Ryazan region on the evening of March 4, the first day of his leave. The man has been arrested, and a criminal case has been opened under the charge of murdering two or more people.
In Smolensk, four people have been convicted of the attempted murder of a war participant. Two of them were sentenced to nine and a half years in a penal colony, while the other two received nine and twelve and a half years of imprisonment, respectively. According to investigators, in March 2023, one of the men became jealous of a woman’s relationship with the serviceman. During the conflict, the serviceman was shot multiple times with a traumatic weapon and was diagnosed with partial hearing loss. Initially, the attackers’ actions were classified as hooliganism under the Criminal Code, but they were later charged with attempted murder.
A court in Nalchik has sentenced serviceman Astemir Teshev to three years in a maximum security penal colony for going AWOL. According to investigators, on Nov. 28, 2024, Teshev "without valid reasons" failed to return to his military unit and was detained a month later. When determining the sentence, the court took into account Teshev’s previous unexpunged conviction. In November 2018, he was sentenced to two years and nine months in a maximum security penal colony for robbery with the use of violence.
In Krasnodar, staff members of the military hospital have been accused of accepting bribes from servicemen. The Hospital Administrator, his deputy, and the administrator of the Ministry of Defense’s clinic are under investigation. They are charged with receiving substantial bribes. Five servicemen, ranging in rank from private to junior sergeant, are accused of giving bribes. Investigators claim their intermediaries included the senior nurse of one of the hospital's departments, two civilians, and one serviceman. Several individuals involved in the case have been held in pre-trial detention since mid-2024.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) reported the arrest of 24-year-old Markus Mur in the city of Yekaterinburg over posts on the VKontakte social network. According to law enforcement, he allegedly "called for setting fire to draft offices and military units using Molotov cocktails." Mur has been charged with justifying terrorism. The TASS [Russian state-owned news agency] published a video with his apologies, stating that the posts were made while he was living in Georgia. It remains unclear when and under what circumstances he returned to Russia.
A resident of Ivanovo, 36-year-old Ivan Monakhov, was sentenced to 12 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of treason. According to investigators, Monakhov donated money to support the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
A court in Novosibirsk sentenced Sergey Dementyev, Artyom Zhilenkov, and Dmitry Rodkin to 18, 17, and 16 years in a penal colony, respectively, on charges of treason, aiding and financing terrorist activities, conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack in a group, and training to carry out an act of terror. According to investigators, ahead of the presidential election in March 2024, the defendants planned to throw Molotov cocktails at Putin’s campaign headquarters in Barnaul. However, they were detained near the building before they could set it on fire.
Kirill Solovyov, a 20-year-old resident of the Ivanovo region, has been sentenced to 14 years in a penal colony on charges of treason, attempted treason, and illegal border crossing. FSB border service officers detained Solovyov in April 2023 on the outskirts of the village of Krasnaya Niva in the Belgorod region, allegedly while attempting to cross the border to fight on the side of Ukraine.
The Southern District Military Court has sentenced Dmitry Levin, a resident of Novorossiysk, to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of treason and participation in a terrorist organization. According to investigators, from Jan. 19 to March 28, 2024, Levin made contact with a representative of Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate and the Russian Volunteer Corps. During this period, he gathered information about the Russian Navy's activities, the locations of military ships, and the location of a military airfield in the Krasnodar region. Levin was also accused of photographing naval equipment. Investigators claim that he sent these photographs, along with geographic coordinates, to Ukrainian representatives. It is known that Levin acquired Russian citizenship in 2019, and the prosecution has described him as "an opponent of the special military operation."
Natalia Shulha, a 56-year-old resident of Ukraine's Enerhodar, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for participation in a sabotage group, attempted sabotage, and attempted illegal possession of firearms. According to investigators, in February 2022 Shulha joined a group allegedly created by the Ukrainian security services, and in June she took from a cache in Enerhodar an improvised explosive device, which had previously been replaced with a hoax one. The woman attached it to a power pylon supplying electricity to 10,000 people, but was then detained. The Ukrainian head of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, said Shulga worked at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
Military court received cases against 115 Ukrainian prisoners of war in connection with the Kursk region incursion, according to Mediazona. All are charged with committing an act of terror in a group with severe consequences. The first cases began to be heard in the fall, but the court subsequently concealed the names of defendants across all "terrorism" articles. Nevertheless, cases against AFU soldiers stand out as they are tried in groups under identical charges. At the time of the post on the website of the military court, verdicts had already been handed down to 30 defendants. The Investigative Committee reported 32 sentences for captured military personnel ranging from 15 to 17 years imprisonment. Specifically, AFU servicemen Ivan Furlet, Yurii Zadorozhny, Yurii Sychenko, and Yurii Khayuk, who were captured on Sept. 10, were sentenced to 17 years imprisonment on terrorism charges. According to investigators, the Ukrainians "mined roads and areas of terrain, opened fire to kill Russian servicemen and civilians, prohibited the latter from moving around, and prevented their evacuation." Additionally, 19 years in a maximum security penal colony were given to 22-year-old British citizen James Scott Rees Anderson. He was convicted on charges of terrorism and mercenary activity during an armed conflict. The Insider [independent Russian investigative media outlet] reports on how Ukrainian civilians and AFU servicemen captured by Russia are being tried.
Assistance
In the Murmansk region, members of United Russia, representatives of the Defenders of the Fatherland Fund, and the mayor of Polyarnye Zori congratulated mothers whose sons were killed in the war and gave them meat grinders as gifts for International Women's Day.
Children and Educational System
The Ministry of Education of the Rostov region is set to acquire more than 700 exact replicas of the Makarov pistol for schools in the region. According to official documents, the procurement is expected to cost up to 27.6 million rubles [$306,600].
Ahead of International Women's Day, Russian schools and colleges hosted lectures, office hours, and campaigns dedicated to women participating in the war against Ukraine.
Miscellaneous
The Yakutsk City Court has denied a lawsuit filed by former Wagner Group mercenary Yevgeny Kim, who sought one million rubles in compensation from the Yakutia.Info media outlet. The lawsuit stemmed from an article detailing Kim’s criminal past. The former mercenary cited a presidential pardon decree in his claim. However, the defendant’s representative argued in court that the expungement of a criminal record through such a decree does not render information about Kim’s past crimes false. The court refused to satisfy the ex-mercenary’s claim.