Mobilization in Russia for Nov. 12-14, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
The Russian government has amended the compensation scheme for military personnel wounded in combat, introducing a differentiated scale based on injury severity. Under the updated policy, soldiers with severe injuries will receive 3 million rubles [$30,500], while those with minor injuries will get 1 million rubles [$10,200]. The latter category includes injuries such as closed skull trauma with brain concussion, ligament ruptures, gunshot wounds, soft tissue injuries and hearing organ damage. Other injuries will be compensated at a lower rate of 100,000 rubles [$1,020]. Previously, all wounded personnel received the same payment regardless of the injury's severity. The Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] Telegram channel notes that those who have already been compensated for minor injuries will keep their payments. News of the upcoming changes emerged last week. According to Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet], the revisions have sparked criticism from pro-Kremlin war correspondents and pro-military Telegram channels. Journalist Farida Rustamova sees the rapid two-and-a-half-hour turnaround between Putin's decree on Nov. 13 and its implementation by the government as an effort to preempt further debate on the issue.
On Nov. 14, Putin signed another decree, increasing compensation to 4 million rubles [$40,600] for military personnel whose war-related injuries resulted in disability. The decree applies retroactively to injuries incurred since the beginning of the war. Funds for injuries incurred before the decree's enactment will be disbursed by the Defenders of the Fatherland Fund, headed by Anna Tsivilyova, a relative of Putin and the State Secretary of the Ministry of Defense. Compensation for injuries sustained after the decree takes effect will be provided directly from the federal budget.
By May 2024, total payouts for wounded soldiers were expected to reach 900 billion rubles [$9 billion], with compensation for families of soldiers killed in action estimated at a minimum of 1.4 trillion rubles [$14 billion], according to analysts from War On The Rocks. Estimates by the Sever.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet, based on loss counts tracked by Mediazona and BBC News Russian, suggest that budget payouts solely for wounded soldiers who have left active service might range between 809.4 billion [$8 billion] and 1.128 trillion rubles [$11 billion]. Additionally, a large number of soldiers with minor injuries return to the frontline, potentially raising total payouts considerably. Russian soldiers have frequently complained, however, about difficulties in receiving the due compensation, even in cases of severe injuries.
The State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly] has passed a law requiring volunteer fighters to reimburse the cost of damaged, destroyed or abandoned military equipment from their own pay. The reimbursement will be limited to one month’s salary—at least 210,000 rubles [$2,130]—and one monthly seniority bonus. Volunteer fighters will also be fully liable for losses resulting from theft, intentional destruction, damage, misuse of equipment or other intentional actions. This liability period extends to three years from the date the damage is discovered. Mobilized and contract soldiers already carry this liability. The new law applies to units such as Akhmat, BARS units and the Union of Donbas Volunteers. According to the Astra independent media outlet, approximately 30 similar volunteer formations are currently fighting as part of the Russian army.
Authorities in Chuvashia [Russia’s constituent republic] have amended the regional payment policy for families of soldiers killed in action. Previously, the death gratuity of 1 million rubles [$10,200] was limited to soldiers killed in the "special military operation" zone. The updated policy now extends this compensation to include deaths occurring in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions.
Authorities in the Moscow region have prepared a draft law proposing a payment of 3 million rubles [$30,500] to the families of conscripted soldiers from the Moscow suburbs who were killed in action. The law "applies to legal relations arising from Aug. 6, 2024, and remains in effect until Dec. 31, 2024" (Aug. 6 marks the beginning of an offensive by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region).
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
In Moscow, police conducted roundups of draft dodgers, according to reports from the human rights organization Shkola Prizyvnika [Conscript School] and the anti-war Telegram channel Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all]. Most of the young men were detained in the metro and then taken to the military collection point on Ugreshskaya Street, with some being handcuffed. One detainee reported that around 250 men were held at the Ugreshskaya facility. He was eventually released after his sister provided documents proving he was already involved in legal proceedings with the draft office. However, several men have since lost contact. Lawyers have pointed out that police escorting draftees to a draft office violates legal procedures, as such actions are not permitted under Russian law.
In the Cherdynsky district of the Perm region [Russia’s federal subject], the payment for signing a military contract will be doubled to 100,000 rubles [$1,020]. When combining both regional and federal payments, volunteer fighters from the district will receive 2,150,000 rubles [$21,800]. Recently, authorities in the Perm region increased the sign-up bonus from 400,000 rubles [$4,060] to 1.5 million rubles [$15,200].
In Omsk, traffic police and draft office employees jointly set up a checkpoint on the Cherlaksky highway. They were pulling over cars and commuter minivans and handed draft notices to naturalized citizens who had failed to register with the military.
Makhmud Amiraliev, the head of the Karabudakhkentsky district in Russia’s constituent Republic of Dagestan, met with local residents who had been placed under supervision following the antisemitic pogroms at Makhachkala's airport in October 2023. During the meeting, he suggested that they sign contracts with the MoD in order to be removed from the police registry.
Aleksey Khotin, the ex-owner of the failed Yugra bank, who was sentenced in March to nine years in prison for embezzling 23.6 billion rubles [$240 million],expressed his desire to head to war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ayrat Karimov, a former top manager at the petrochemical company Gazprom Nevtekhim Salavat, has already gone to the frontline. In 2023, Karimov was detained and charged with the unlawful privatization of a recreational center.
Vladimir Svetlichny, the former head of the Tsymlyansky district in the Rostov region, has been reported killed in the war. The former official had been sentenced to three years and one month in prison for abuse of authority in summer 2023, after which he left for the frontline.
In the Belgorod region, Mikhail Lobaznov, the head of the Gubkinsky urban district, and Galina Rudenko, the head of the Krasnogvardeysky district, who had joined the BARS-Belgorod volunteer unit, have resumed their former roles after a month of service. Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, stated that their "rotation" was approved by the MoD. In total, about 20 officials have announced their participation in the BARS-Belgorod unit.
Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers
The mother of 18-year-old Aleksey V. has reported that at the end of October, her son, a conscript, was pressured into signing a contract with the MoD by the command of his military unit in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Khabarovsk region. The woman stated that battalion commander Vadim Chuzhinov, assistant chief of staff Pavel Fomin and company commander Albert Karapetyan threatened her son with deployment to the Russia-Ukraine border as part of the infantry if he refused to sign the contract. Aleksey V. had been under the care of a psychologist and had not completed the required training course for new recruits. On Nov. 2, all conscripts from the unit were sent to the Sergeyevsky training range near the city of Ussuriysk in the Primorsky region [Russia's federal subject]. There, the conscripts were informed that they would be deployed to the war.
Another case has surfaced of a conscript from the Sverdlovsk region who was pressured into signing a contract. According to the Ostorozhno, Novosti [Beware the News] Telegram channel, the sister of 18-year-old Maksim Ch. reported that he was drafted on Oct. 25, 2024. Just five days later, he and other conscripts in the 43rd Separate Railway Brigade were forced to sign contracts.
This is not the first case of forced contract signing. Ivan Chuvilyaev, press secretary for Idite Lesom!, and Alexey Tabalov, head of Shkola Prizyvnika, told the Vyorstka media outlet that such incidents have become more frequent in recent months. According to Chuvilyaev, orders for the required number of new contract soldiers are now being issued in various regions. Tabalov noted that the pressure to sign contracts has intensified: whereas conscripts used to be offered contracts after six months of service, now this happens within the first few days. Tabalov suggested that conscripts are being forced to sign contracts more often because they do not receive millions of rubles in payments from regional budgets.
According to Vyorstka's tally based on media reports and obituaries posted on social media, at least 13 Russian conscripts have been killed since the start of the AFU offensive in the Kursk region. The first reported death of a conscript was recorded on the ninth day after the Ukrainian breakthrough, and the last in this list—20-year-old Konstantin Zakharyonok from the Krasnodar region—was reported on Nov. 1.
Colonel Yevgeny Ladnov, commander of the 19th Tank Regiment, was reported killed in action. According to military sources, Ladnov was responsible for organizing barrier troops and allegedly ordered the execution of Russian soldiers. He had reportedly commanded the execution of six fighters who had refused to obey an order. Ladnov was killed on Nov. 10, 2024, near the town of Kreminna during an artillery strike.
Ruslan Shishigin from Kamensk-Uralsky, Sverdlovsk region, also was killed in the war. He had previously been convicted for assaulting a young woman together with an accomplice because they disliked her blue hair and believed she "looked Jewish." In October 2023, a court sentenced him to three years in a penal colony. However, in the spring of 2024, Shishigin signed a military contract, and less than six months later, he was killed on the frontline.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
The war participant Denis Kalmanov was sentenced to eight years in a maximum security penal colony for murder. In a bar, he approached Ruslan Makushev, suggesting he join the "special military operation," but Makushev declined. Later, Kalmanov lay in wait for Makushev on the street and stabbed him six times.
In Saint Petersburg, Maksim Vorobyov, a participant in the war in Ukraine, committed three armed robberies within a single day. He was apprehended and handed over to the military police, as he was wanted for going AWOL. Previously convicted of theft, Vorobyov was under the influence of drugs at the time of the attacks.
Ten soldiers preparing for deployment to Ukraine escaped from a military unit in the village of Kochenyovo, Novosibirsk region, according to a Telegram post by Yevgeny Antipov, head of the Kochenyovsky district. Antipov reported that the soldiers left the unit by taxi. At least two of those involved had previous criminal convictions, as reported by the independent media outlet Agentstvo. Messages circulating in local chats claim that the escapees were unarmed; four were detained almost immediately, while the remaining six reportedly headed to the Kemerovo region. According to the NGS media outlet, about 30 soldiers from the Central Military District—who had previously gone AWOL from their respective units—had been transferred to Kochenyovo, presumably for deployment to the frontline. The Astra media outlet managed to contact Viktor Sergeev, one of the men identified in alerts issued by Mash, a Kremlin-aligned news outlet. Sergeev confirmed that he had fled, citing mistreatment by commanding officers as the reason. Astra reported that inadequate medical care for soldiers was another factor in the escape. The mother of another soldier, Aleksandr, provided NGS with video footage showing soldiers wrecking the barracks after being told they could not avoid deployment to the combat zone. In a recorded conversation prior to the protest, about ten soldiers explained to a military police officer that they were unable to return to the frontline due to injuries. Astra located another witness to the unrest, who claimed that the barracks held 110 to 120 men, only 8 to 10 of whom were prepared to go to the frontline, while the rest were either ill, using crutches, or largely immobile. The soldiers reportedly staged the protest due to lack of support and refusal of medical assistance. By the next day, all participants in the escape had been detained and transferred to the Investigative Committee.
A Moscow military court will hear the first criminal case against a soldier accused of "voluntarily surrendering" to enemy forces. According to investigators, Roman Ivanishin, a mobilized soldier from Sakhalin, attempted to surrender to the AFU twice, one of which was successful. In a video recorded while in captivity, Ivanishin spoke against the war and claimed that he and his fellow soldiers did not want to fight. He was held in captivity for six months and returned to Russia in January 2024 as part of a prisoner of war exchange. Ivanishin is charged with attempted voluntary surrender, surrendering to captivity and desertion.
In the Sverdlovsk region, a man has been detained on charges of attempting to set fire to an electrical substation in Nizhny Tagil, a key facility that provides power to both a military-industrial complex enterprise and the Sverdlovsk Railway. According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), the suspect is "a functionary of a pro-Ukrainian terrorist organization banned in Russia."
RIA Novosti [Russian state-owned news agency] reported the detention of a 20-year-old resident of Saint Petersburg suspected of attempting to organize the arson of aircraft equipment at a military-industrial complex enterprise.
In Karelia [Russia’s constituent republic], a local resident has been charged with committing an act of terror after allegedly setting fire to a draft office. According to investigators, the accused reportedly made several bottles with flammable liquid in May, which he then threw at a draft office building in the Suoyarvsky district. The fire extinguished itself and no one was injured. However, the man faces up to 20 years in prison.
In Nizhny Novgorod, a student threw bottles with burning mixture at a district administration building and a police station on the evening of Nov. 12. The attacks did not result in a fire, and the woman was detained the next day in Lipetsk. During questioning, she stated that she was influenced by fraudsters to commit the act. A criminal case has been opened against her on charges of attempting an act of terror.
In Saint Petersburg, on June 21, a court sentenced Davronbek Yuldoshev, a migrant from Uzbekistan, to one year and nine months in a penal settlement for attempting to set fire to a draft office. Mediazona reported that Yuldoshev was detained on Aug. 10, 2023, near a draft office in Saint Petersburg, where police found a plastic bottle of gasoline in his possession.
Sergey Andreev, a crane operator from Moscow, has been sentenced to 24 years in a high-security penal colony on charges of arson at a draft office and treason. Prosecutors had initially sought a 28-year prison term. More details on Andreev's case can be found in the previous summary.
On June 3, the Yelets City Court in the Lipetsk region sentenced 61-year-old Yelena Chernykh to eighteen months of probation for attempting to set fire to a draft office.
Andrey Kuzmichev, a resident of St. Petersburg, received a three-year sentence in a penal colony on charges of "confidential" cooperation with a foreign state.
Sofia Ryzhkova, a Ukrainian citizen from Kharkiv residing in Belgorod, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison on charges of espionage. The FSB claims she provided Ukrainian intelligence services with information about the location and activities of RuAFÂ units in exchange for monetary compensation. Details obtained by the Pepel [Ashes] Telegram channel reveal that Ryzhkova was held in a military camp for nearly a year before being transferred to a pre-trial detention center in August 2023. During this period, she was subjected to both physical and psychological abuse.
On the morning of Nov. 13, nearly all defendant names disappeared from the website of the Moscow-based Second Western District Military Court, which handles criminal cases, as noted by Mediazona. Now, each case profile on the court's site merely states "Information Classified," listing only the charges, without identifying the defendants. This issue primarily affects cases related to terrorism, which are exclusively handled by district military courts. Officials from the court attributed the disappearance of defendant names to "technical issues."
The Pervy Otdel [First Department] human rights project has presented evidence that FSB agents have posed as Ukrainian citizens to provoke Russians into committing crimes. This tactic is illustrated in the case of Ivan Tolpygin, a resident of Oryol, who was sentenced in July 2024 to four years in prison for "confidential" cooperation with a foreign state. According to the verdict, Tolpygin communicated via Telegram with a "Ukrainian representative" who identified himself as Timur. Tolpygin's task was to send him the coordinates of a site where electronic warfare equipment was located. The verdict explicitly states that "Timur" was, in fact, an FSB operative. At the same time, Russian national law prohibits agents from inciting, encouraging or inducing individuals to commit unlawful acts, either directly or indirectly.
On Nov. 14, a court in the Khanty-Mansi autonomous region–Yugra [Russia's federal subject] sentenced a 58-year-old local woman to one year and two months in a penal settlement after she set fire to a ballot box during the March 2024 presidential election. She was convicted under the charge of "obstruction of the electoral process." The court considered her age and recent heart surgery, granting her double credit for time served in pre-trial detention. As a result, she was released immediately after sentencing.