Mobilization in Russia for Nov. 10-11, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
Starting July 1, 2025, the Russian government plans to reduce the number of public sector employees by 10% and redirect their salaries to the remaining staff. The corresponding decree was signed by Putin on Oct. 29. The reform is expected to affect approximately 400,000 civil servants. The reform's initiators justify the cuts by citing extensive digitalization.
According to calculations by Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet], as much as 83% of regional social spending is now directed toward payments for war participants. On average, regions spend 13% of their social benefit budgets on sign-up bonuses for new contract soldiers. Overall, almost a quarter (23%) of all regional social payments is directed toward war participants. The Stavropol region leads in these expenditures, with 83% of its social budget dedicated to military personnel and their families.
The government has expanded support measures for war participants and their families. Young military families now have priority access to a subsidy covering 30–35% of the cost of purchasing or building a home.
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
A prototype database that Russian authorities may use to mobilize citizens for war has surfaced online. A reader of Meduza [international Russian-language online media outlet] discovered it in a presentation uploaded to the ppt-online.org website. Dated June 2024, the presentation bears the emblem of the General Staff's Main Organizational Mobilizational Directorate and appears to describe a system for tracking Russian citizens for mobilization. In addition to standard personal information such as full name, passport number, employment, residence and health information, the prototype includes a "Priority Military Information" section. This section has fields to indicate specific skills, such as a tractor-driving license, medical training or athletic ranking, and lists any dependents for whom the individual is responsible. Essentially, the prototype contains all the information expected of the Unified Military Register, the digital system to identify citizens subject to military service and serve draft notices, except for the latter. According to the document, Russia’s Ministry of Defense assesses the country’s mobilization potential at about 33 million people. However, Meduza notes that there is no definitive proof of the presentation's authenticity.
The Gosuslugi public services portal now provides information on contract military service, offering enlistees one-, three- and five-year contracts with benefits and payments. However, until authorities declare the end to mobilization, all contracts remain open-ended, without a fixed termination date.
The mother of conscript soldier Dmitry V. from the Sverdlovsk region claims he was coerced into signing a contract with the MoD. Dmitry has been serving his statutory military service in the Khabarovsk region since June 25, 2024. According to his mother, Battalion Commander Vadim Chuzhinov and Staff Assistant Pavel Fomin pressured him, threatening that if he refused to sign, he would be sent to guard the border, while signing would prevent deployment to the frontline. Ultimately, Dmitry signed the contract on Oct. 10, and on Nov. 2, he and other conscripts were sent to the Sergeyevsky training range near the city of Ussuriysk, where they were informed they would soon be deployed to the frontline. Parents have sent appeals to the Khabarovsk regional prosecutor’s office and the Presidential Administration but have not yet received a response. Previously, another conscript's mother from the same unit reported a similar situation.
The Kolpinsky District Court in Saint Petersburg has released from custody Aleksandr Markov and Dmitry Antipov, who were accused of distributing 200 kg of cocaine. According to investigators, in 2023, Markov and Antipov organized the shipment of cocaine from Peru to Russia, with an estimated street value of 3 billion rubles [$30.73 million]. The Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that the criminals had multiple previous convictions. It has now been revealed that Markov and Antipov signed contracts with the MoD and are reportedly assigned to serve in an assault unit.
The Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] Telegram channel provides clarifications on penalties for evading military training, criteria for exemptions, and the procedures and timeline that draft offices must follow to notify individuals about being called up for training sessions.
Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract SoldiersÂ
The wife of a soldier from the 1st Motorized Rifle Brigade has reported that her husband, who suffered a severe leg injury in the early fall of 2024 and cannot walk without crutches, was redeployed to the frontline. She has not been able to contact him for several weeks.
Two soldiers from the 132nd Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, Lieutenant Oleg Guivik and Private Nikolay Poprukhin, who had previously attempted to flee the war due to "criminal orders" from their commanders, have once again contacted the Astra Telegram channel. Astra verified their identities and conducted interviews with them. The soldiers claim that they were sent on "a meat assault," which left "a maximum of 15" survivors out of a company of 150 soldiers. Now, Guivik and Poprukhin want to reach an evacuation point in order to survive.
Relatives of soldiers from the 252nd Regiment have recorded a collective appeal to Vladimir Putin, Russia’s Minister of Defense Andrey Belousov and Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia. According to the relatives, a large number of soldiers from the unit have gone missing in action, with wounded and killed soldiers not having been evacuated. The appellants are requesting that the soldiers receive assistance and be given the opportunity to contact their families.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
The Military Prosecutor's Office has confirmed the suicide of Sergey Savenok, deputy director of the Usolye Cadet Corps. In the fall of 2022, Savenok volunteered to fight in the war and was killed in the Luhansk region on July 29, 2023, after sustaining a wound received "as a result of a shot fired with unclear intent." However, investigators did not initiate a criminal case regarding Savenok's death.
The Second Western District Military Court sentenced Alexey Sokolov from the city of Kovrov, Vladimir region, to 16 years in prison for allegedly setting fire to a relay cabinet on a railway line. Sokolov was charged with attempted participation in a terrorist organization, high treason and sabotage. According to the court, on Oct. 22, 2023, Sokolov, acting on instructions from his handlers, set fire to the power box of surveillance cameras on the Kovrov-Saryevo railway section.
Roman Dubinets from the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region–Yugra [Russia's federal subject] was sentenced to seven years in a maximum-security penal colony on charges of attempted sabotage. According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), Dubinets, acting under the guidance of a "representative of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," planned to set fire to relay electric cabinets on the railway section between Nizhnevartovsk and Surgut.
The Moscow City Court sentenced Andrey Titov, who was accused of treason and weapons possession, to 14 years in a maximum-security penal colony. The court issued the sentence in July, but it only became known during an appellate court hearing. The details of the case against Titov remain undisclosed.
Dmitry Davydenko, a student from Chelyabinsk accused of attempting sabotage on the railway, reported being tortured during interrogation. Residents of the Chelyabinsk region Dmitry Davydenko, his classmate Andrey E. and Danil Nureyev are accused of attempting to set fire to a relay cabinet at the Potanino station near the city of Kopeysk on Jan. 4, 2023.
Đšursk and Belgorod Regions
Residents of the village of Olgovka in the Korenevsky district have appealed to Putin, asking him to end the war and issue them housing certificates.
Residents of the town of Sudzha have once again called for a humanitarian corridor to evacuate their loved ones from territory under the control of the AFU. This time, their appeal was addressed not only to the presidents and human-rights ombudsmen of Russia and Ukraine but also to the UN Secretary-General, the Pope, and the presidents of the UAE and Turkey. The Russian Presidential Administration stated that this is the first time they have heard of such a request. Meanwhile, a Sudzha resident and mother of many children, Svetlana Lyakhova, delivered a collective letter with over 2,500 signatures to the Presidential Administration, the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia] and the Federation Council on Nov. 1.
As reported by the Agentstvo [Agency] independent media outlet, residents of the Kursk region have begun making mass video appeals to Putin after three months of inaction from local officials. Since Nov. 3, residents of the Sheptukhovo village council in the Korenevsky district have posted 38 video addresses on social media, including direct messages to Putin. In these videos, they demand certificates for new housing to replace what they left behind, loan forgiveness, and describe the harsh conditions in temporary accommodation centers, as well as looting in abandoned areas.
Unknown individuals have reportedly looted the central hospital in the rear Glushkovsky district of the Kursk region, an area that Ukrainian forces have not entered. Previously, Russian soldiers allegedly looted local homes and a Wildberries distribution center in the area.
In the Belgorod region, authorities reviewed the cases of 309 displaced people from the border area whose homes were reportedly destroyed by attacks. According to the regional social protection minister Elena Batanova, only 136 of them proved they were living in rented apartments. After the investigation, 56% of the displaced people lost their housing rental compensation. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov ordered that the inspection files be handed over to the police and prosecutor’s office to investigate potential fraud. The regional government has spent 138 million rubles [$1.41 million] on these compensations. Additionally, Gladkov stated that since the start of the war, authorities have spent 500 million rubles [$5.12 million] to install 10,000 shelters in the Belgorod region.
Miscellaneous
Azat Badranov, a veteran of the war in Ukraine, will take on the vacant position as head of administration in Russia's constituent Republic of Bashkortostan. Badranov volunteered to go to the frontline in September 2022 as part of the Shaimuratov Battalion [a unit formed in Bashkortostan], despite having no previous military service or training. He went to war with the rank of lieutenant and, after returning a year and a half later, became the first deputy head of the internal policy administration under Governor of Bashkortostan Radiy Khabirov.