Mobilization in Russia for May 8-11, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia], announced that the parliament intends to begin considering a bill that would "increase the liability for administrative offenses" for individuals residing abroad if they commit offenses "directed against Russia's interests." Volodin clarified that this involves holding individuals accountable "under all articles defining administrative offenses," including propaganda or public display of Nazi attributes or symbols, discrediting the Russian Armed Forces, spreading fakes, abusing freedom of speech, and failing to fulfill the obligations of a social network owner. To ensure that individuals involved in proceedings related to administrative offenses "cannot evade the execution of a court decision," the bill will provide for the seizure of their assets. Previously, in April 2025, authorities adopted a law allowing for trials in absentia for citizens who have left the country for 20 types of crimes; before this, such trials were only possible for accusations of serious and particularly serious crimes.
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
The notice indicating that Russia’s Draft Register was operating in test mode has been removed from the official website, as pointed out by the Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] Telegram channel. Previously, the site indicated that the system was operating in test mode in three regions. Now, it appears to be fully launched: users are prompted to log in to their personal accounts, check for draft notices, and request official extracts. However, the system's functionality remains in question. A journalist from Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet] was unable to access the personal account for conscripts—the page either displayed an error or entered an endless loading loop. Meanwhile, the section of the site for legal entities functions reliably.
The Movement of Conscientious Objectors [a human rights organization supporting those who refuse to perform military service] was able to obtain two types of extracts: one from the register of delivered draft notices, and another from the Unified Military Register [the register of Russians subject to military service]. The extracts turned out to be identical except for an abbreviation indicating the type of register. Two editors from the Agentstvo [Agency] independent media outlet also managed to log into their personal accounts and request extracts from the Unified Military Register. In both cases, the extracts contained no information about registration for military service, which may indicate that the data in the register is still incomplete. Human rights advocates also believe it is premature to consider the register as fully operational.
The Ukhta City Court has suspended the criminal case against 36-year-old police lieutenant colonel Vladimir Torlopov, who was accused of exceeding official authority with the use of violence after he signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense. According to the investigation, in June 2023, while intoxicated, Torlopov arrived at the scene of a murder, where he strangled and beat the murdered man’s girlfriend, then continued the assault at the police station to force a confession from her. Torlopov had been held in a pre-trial detention center, and the case was transferred to the court in November 2024, but hearings were repeatedly postponed. On April 7, 2025, the court granted a motion from the Syktyvkar enlistment office and suspended the case.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
On May 9, two men were killed and two women were injured in a grenade explosion in the stairwell of a residential building in the town of Losino-Petrovsky in the Moscow region. The group was celebrating Victory Day when an attendee decided to present a grenade. The group went outside the apartment, where the grenade detonated. According to the Baza and 112 Telegram channels, both having sources close to law enforcement, the grenade was brought to the gathering by a 46-year-old war participant. The Investigative Committee has initiated a criminal case for negligent homicide and illegal possession of ammunition.
In the Vladimir region, the town court of Gus-Khrustalny sentenced Frol Morev, a Wagner Group mercenary who returned from war, to seven years and ten months in prison for murder. The verdict states that Morev killed his drinking companion after being insulted during a gathering. In response, the mercenary attacked the offender. The court considered Morev's participation in the war, his receipt of the Medal for Courage and his history of alcohol abuse, minor offences and related crimes as mitigating circumstances. Morev enlisted for the war from a penal colony. He had a history of criminal convictions for theft, car theft and causing harm to health of varying severity.
A 42-year-old blogger, Andrey Rul—known online as Andrey Parovar, the creator of a YouTube channel about traditional Russian saunas—has been arrested in connection with a case involving the delivery of non-functional Chinese electronic warfare systems, known as Vyzhigatel [Burner], to Rosgvardia [the Russian National Guard]. According to Izvestia [The News, a Russian pro-Kremlin daily broadsheet newspaper and a news channel], Rosgvardia signed contracts in November 2023 worth over 820 million rubles [$9.91 million] for the delivery of Vyzhigatel systems intended to jam drones. Just a few months later, the agency reported their successful use in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. However, Izvestia claims the Chinese-supplied equipment "simply did not respond to enemy drones."
On May 11, Kislovodsk Mayor Yevgeny Moiseyev announced that police are investigating the arson of the letter "V" on a monument at the city’s entrance. A temporary replacement has been installed. The monument, featuring the inscription "KisloVodsk," was erected after the start of the war in Ukraine. This is the second time in three years it has been set on fire. The first incident occurred in January 2023, when a local resident was accused of committing arson on behalf of the Ukrainian Right Sector. In May 2024, the man was sentenced to five years in a penal colony for participating in the activities of an extremist organization and for the intentional destruction of property (under Articles 282.2 and 167 of the Russian Criminal Code).
According to Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet], the 50-year-old taxi driver arrested on treason charges is named Vladimir Silayev. His ex-wife, Olga Fesenko, claims that, according to investigators, Silayev was photographing strategic facilities in Moscow on instructions from Ukrainian intelligence. She says Silayev has six prior convictions but has had no legal issues in the past 10 years.
63-year-old Doctor of Sciences in physics and mathematics Yury Lutsenko from Tomsk has been accused of treason. The case was initiated in March 2025, but it was discovered by the Astra Telegram channel only recently. The case is based on the fact that in 2013, Lutsenko allegedly sent one of his scientific papers to Igor Matveyev, a Ukrainian-born Ph.D. in plasma and high-temperature physics, who at the time was living in the United States and serving as president of Applied Plasma Technologies, based in the Washington, D.C. area. Journalists were unable to contact Lutsenko or his relatives, and the man’s current whereabouts are unknown.
Children
The Agentstvo media outlet and the Ne Norma [Not a norm] Telegram channel have compiled collections of parades featuring kindergarten children that took place across Russia as part of the Victory Day celebrations. As noted by the Ne Norma, this year the event grew significantly in scale. The Agentstvo uncovered reports of preschoolers participating in parades in 50 towns across 27 regions of Russia. In many cases, the parades included displays of model military vehicles—tanks with Z-symbols, fighter jets, and military vehicles, all transporting children. A key part of the event was the variety of military uniforms in which the children were dressed.
In one school in Kursk, a lesson called "Mathematics in Defense of the Fatherland" was held, where students calculated the number of tanks involved in the Battle of Prokhorovka, the angle of artillery gun elevation, and the percentage of surviving frontline soldiers.
On May 9, in the village of Akyar in Bashkortostan, kindergarten children participated in the Victory Day Parade. Despite heavy rain and strong wind during the event, the children continued their participation in the parade.
Miscellaneous
According to the Perm 36.6 Telegram channel, the governor of the Perm region approved a one-time payment of 20,000 rubles [$240] for World War II veterans on the occasion of the anniversary of victory, which is 75 times less than the one-time sign-up bonus from the Ministry of Defense, currently set at 1.5 million rubles [$18,100].
Longreads
The Lyudi Baikala [People of Baikal] independent media outlet] published a monologue from aby the mother of a cadet from the Zabaykalsky region, reflecting on how her child's interest in military uniforms and discipline has led to involvement in war, funerals, and propaganda.