November 3, 2022

Volunteer summary of mobilization in Russia for November 1-2

Russia’s Federation Council (upper house of Parliament) approved the laws allowing alternative civilian service during mobilization, equating volunteers to servicemen, and allowing the drafting of citizens with an unexpunged criminal record.

Viktor Vorobiev, deputy of the State Council (local legislature) of the Komi Republic, included in April in the Justice Ministry's register of "foreign media agents," appealed to President Putin asking him to issue a decree ending mobilization.

At a training center in Ulyanovsk, about 100 mobilized men began a "riot": people are dissatisfied with the conditions of detention and the lack of promised payments. According to the "Serditaya Chuvashiya" Telegram channel, OMON (Special Purpose Police) and Rosgvardiya (Federal Guard Service) are being pulled into this training center. According to the “Baza” Telegram channel, officers soon managed to calm down the discontented people and reassure them that they will soon receive their promised money. However, one of the mobilized men told the "7x7" media outlet on condition of anonymity that a "total strike" is continuing in the unit. They do not go to training, stay in the unit, and wait for the arrival of the head of Chuvashia, Oleg Nikolaev, although they do not really believe that this will happen. "Serditaya Chuvashia" published a video, in which a mobilized man reports in the Chuvash language that he has been detained by military police, and SOBR (Special Rapid Response Unit) soldiers are on the territory of the unit. The situation as of Wednesday evening from the same Telegram channel.

Conscripts called up during the autumn draft may be sent to the neighboring zones of "Special Military Operation" in Belgorod and Kursk regions or to the Black Sea Fleet based in Sevastopol, said Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Duma Defense Committee.

In St. Petersburg, all activities related to the mobilization and delivery of summonses have been terminated. This was announced by Governor Beglov. And in Kabardino-Balkaria they continue to hand out summonses. A subscriber told the “Sirena” media outlet about it and sent a video from the village of Aushiger. There, the police stop trucks for inspection, after which they issue summonses. The head of Karelia admitted that mobilization in the region continued after Shoigu's words about its completion. He called it "a necessary rotation," but promised that no more summonses would be issued from November 2.

The draft office of the Tsaritsyno district of Moscow has not managed to resolve the issue of mobilization of the muscovites, who had had their military specialties changed to "rifleman" by the local military commissar. These men received new draft notices once again with an obligation to come to the draft office on November 14 this time; previously, an attempt had been undertaken to send them to war, but they had returned to Moscow due to the refusal of military units to enlist them.

A ceremony of sending out mobilized citizens to areas of combat cohesion training took place in the Saratov region. Another group of mobilized soldiers left Zabaikalye from Chita airport. The 1232nd Motorized Rifle Regiment, which had completed its training and combat readjustment in Kazan, was sent  into the combat zone. More than 300 servicemen from the Tula region departed to the rear areas of the "Special Military Operation."

Here is how, according to the version of the Defense Ministry, training of mobilized from the Far East and Kaliningrad, at training ranges in the Leningrad and Novosibirsk regions, as well as the Ryazan and Stavropol regions, takes place.

On November 2, in Krasnoturinsk, there will be a funeral ceremony for 36-year-old Viktor Maslov, who was killed in Ukraine during the "special operation". Another Volgograd resident, Sergei Alekseev, who was killed on October 24, was buried on October 31. Reports appeared about the death of Nikolay Kozin, another mobilized man from the Bryansk region.

Draft commission employees broke mobilization rules on a daily basis. Bumaga (Paper) and Mediazona publications created an interactive map where they show more than 50 known rule violations during the mobilization in St. Petersburg.

Because the mobilization ended, 30 conscripts from Barabinsk (Novosibirsk Region) were returned home. This turn of events didn’t suit some of them who went back to the recruitment office and volunteered to serve. Some of the mobilized soldiers from Biysk (Altai Region), namely fathers of multiple children, may also come back home. The Biysk Worker newspaper writes: “When Biysk residents return to their families, we would need to send the same number of volunteers to replace them.” The directive to return fathers of multiple children apparently doesn’t concern  Perm recruits. According to the Perm 36.6 Telegram channel, they are being kept at the training centers where they are being prepared to be sent to the war zone.

At least 146 men from Sverdlovsk Region were sent to the “special operation” zone without any preparation. In addition, there are 184 reports of dispatching untrained soldiers to war. The State Duma representative Maksim Ivanov keeps receiving similar reports. Aleksandr Novoselov, a mobilized father of three from Alapaevsk, is still at the front despite the fact that he was promised that he would be returned home. There are also efforts to bring home the Volgograd resident Konstantin Zelenin who was mobilized in spite of having an exemption from draft.

The Labor Minister of the Altai Republic inspected the everyday life of the mobilized soldiers. To the camera, all of them say that “all is well, the stoves are burning.”

The mobilized from the Pskov region are sick, starving and spending the night outdoors, a Pskov woman wrote right under the post of the Pskov region governor Mikhail Vedernikov, who reported that the region had successfully completed the mobilization quota.

The police in Bataysk filed a protocol against the Telegram channel administrator for a video with complaints of the mobilized. Earlier, local media wrote about this appeal, but later they were forced to remove the materials due to the requirement of Roskomnadzor [Russia’s internet censorship agency].

As part of the campaign to sponsor the RF army, Tyumen residents have already raised 18 million rubles. The campaign “100 million for Victory” was announced in September by the local branch of “United Russia”. To date, over 90 organizations and over 1300 individuals have contributed to this campaign.

For three weeks, the social services of the Kama region received more than 3.5 thousand appeals from relatives of the mobilized residents of the region. Here is what the food package for the families of the Perm mobilized looks like. This is how food is collected for the military in one of the shops in Novocherkassk. The Governor of the Vladimir region Alexander Avdeev presented a vacuum cleaner to the family of the mobilized Sergei Shataykin. This was reported by the department of social protection, but soon the post was deleted.

The authorities of the Novosibirsk region refused to lift the partial ban on the sale of alcohol introduced after the mobilization announcement until the presidential decree on its completion or another document “announcing the completion of partial mobilization” is issued. This was reported by the press service of the regional government.

Today, in the Oktyabrsky District Court of Vladimir, a case of Alena Zotova will be heard, who demands that her delivery to the police department (because of a protest against mobilization announced in the city center) is declared illegal. The Chita court rejected a complaint of a local resident on a decision on mobilization.

According to an estimate of the number of the mobilized which was made by the Verstka internet media outlet, Khabarovsk, Tver and Volgograd regions, as well as Russia’s constituent republic of Kalmykia could have mobilized more men than was announced by the Ministry of Defense.

E1 internet media outlet from Ekaterinburg published a story of mobilized soldier Dmitry, who is in a training center in Yelan. His words about a total absence of training are confirmed by mobilized soldiers from Yugra. As one of them says “the training is at zero”. After claims about an invasion of lice, a hairdresser was invited to the center.

A mobilized resident of Kemerovo region is now at the frontline. He told the “NGS42.RU” internet media how his military service takes place.  In particular, he told about the 1st day when he came under mortar fire.

The “Sibir. Reality” internet media told about mobilized soldiers from Tomsk who were threatened with charges of desertion after their retreat from positions because of mortar fire. They have been hiding in a forest in Ukraine for 2 weeks.

The Prospekt Mira Krasnoyarsk internet media outlet interviewed local businessmen about their survival after the 1st stage of mobilization and if they are afraid of a possible 2nd wave. The government of Krasnoyarsk region allows the possibility of labor mobilization for students. Meanwhile, active production of insulated sleeping bags for the mobilized started in the region.