Mobilization in Russia for Nov. 17-18, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary

Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising

In the Pskov region, military commissar Fyodor Zakirov is urging conscripts to immediately sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense rather than perform their statutory military service. The Soldiers' Mothers Movement contends that this persuasion is entirely legal. Recent amendments to the Military Conscription and Military Service Act allow conscripts to sign contracts upon reaching the age of 18, eliminating the previous requirement to wait three months after beginning their service.

A father from Bashkortostan [Russia's constituent republic] claims that military recruiters deceived his 20-year-old conscript son into signing a two-year contract with the Ministry of Defense by promising weekend trips home. After receiving a draft notice, the son arrived at a military collection point in Ufa from Neftekamsk on Nov. 8. The next day, he informed his parents that he had signed a contract. According to the young man, a recruiting warrant officer told conscripts he was assembling a "canine unit" and promised high salaries and service near Ufa, allowing them to "go home every weekend." The father said at least 15 young men signed a document they were told was required for such service, which turned out to be a military contract. He added that some conscripts' parents have contacted the police.

The Saint Petersburg City Court has suspended the criminal proceedings against Aleksandr Sukharev, a former special forces officer and veteran of two wars, who was accused of contract murder and illegal possession of firearms, after he signed a contract with the MoD. The court also released him from pre-trial detention. In the summer of 2023, Sukharev shot Viktor Aliev, the director of the Monolit company. Two months later, Sukharev was arrested along with an alleged accomplice. Previously, he had been convicted for a knife attack as well as for robberies targeting jewelry stores and pawnshops as part of a gang. For those crimes, in October 2023, while he was already in custody for the murder case, he was sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony.

Bashir Vedzizhev, a resident of Ingushetia [Russia’s constituent republic] who spent several months in a pre-trial detention center over a criminal case involving the death of a 4-year-old girl, has reportedly gone to fight in the war in Ukraine. A video has surfaced showing the 46-year-old Vedzizhev in military uniform riding in a truck accompanied by a dozen other servicemen. Vedzizhev was detained in May 2023 on suspicion of assaulting 4-year-old Samira Mutsolgova, who later died in a hospital. According to the Kavkaz.Realii [Caucasus.Realities, part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] media outlet, citing medical reports, she showed clear signs of sexual violence. Before being detained in the Mutsolgova case, Vedzizhev had been convicted of large-scale drug trafficking.

Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers

The Astra Telegram channel has reported that as a result of an inspection in the 3rd Combined Arms Army, which participated in the assaults on the village of Bilohorivka on the Siversk direction and suffered significant losses, Colonel Fyodor Beloglazov, the commander of the 7th Motorized Rifle Brigade, was arrested. Additionally, the commander and chief of staff of the 3rd Army, as well as the commander of the 123rd Motorized Rifle Brigade, who was previously reported by Astra, have been relieved of their duties. Astra's source indicates that the total number of casualties sustained in the assaults on Bilohorivka over the course of ten days amounted to 1,410 men, with the overall figure for the entire Siversk direction since the beginning of the assaults exceeding 15,000. Astra's source expressed confusion over the fact that the brigade commander, Colonel Fyodor Beloglazov, was named as the one "to take the fall" for the Bilohorivka assault, given that other officers were responsible for deploying personnel to the "meat assaults."

The Pepel [Ashes] Telegram channel has contacted a soldier stationed in the village of Zhuravlyovka, Belgorod region. The soldier said that one of the commanders who led an ill-prepared assault on the village, Captain Ruslan Andarov, has since deserted and is now in the village of Zaitseve in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region of Ukraine. He asserts that all those who commanded the Zhuravlyovka assault are currently in Zaitseve, where an illegal basement prison for refuseniks and AWOLs is situated. Previously, Pepel discovered that the RuAF sustained over 500 casualties in the fighting for Zhuravlyovka.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

A 23-year-old woman from Izhevsk has accused 32-year-old war participant Vyacheslav Galtsev of rape. Galtsev, listed as a rifleman, has been detained, and a criminal case on charges for rape has been initiated against him.

In the Moscow region, an intoxicated war participant hijacked a shared taxi and caused a traffic accident. The 31-year-old man, identified as Denis L., had an altercation with the taxi driver, forcibly took the keys, and drove off in the vehicle. During a police chase, Denis L. crashed into a passing SUV before being detained. A criminal case has been initiated against him for unauthorized vehicle use without intent to steal. It is known that Denis L. has a prior criminal record for vehicle theft, burglary, and threats of death or grievous bodily harm.

According to statistics cited by the Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] Telegram channel, military courts in the Primorsky region have heard 124 criminal cases under the article on failure to obey orders since the start of mobilization. This article is used to prosecute soldiers who refuse to be deployed to the frontline.

A court in Adygea [Russia's constituent republic] has sentenced mobilized soldier Ramazan Bidanok to eight years in a maximum security penal colony for going AWOL twice. In August 2023, Bidanok fled while in the occupied Donetsk region. He was detained in March 2024, and a criminal case was initiated against him for going AWOL. During the investigation, he was assigned to a unit in Maykop, but he left it and went home in June. Bidanok was detained again in August, and this time he was charged with desertion. The final sentence for the mobilized soldier was based on the combination of both charges.

The Rostov Regional Court has sentenced two Ukrainian citizens, Maksym Makhno and Serhii Tkachenko, to 12 years of imprisonment for espionage. According to prosecutors, in August 2022, Makhno gathered information on the location of RuAF personnel and military vehicles in the occupied town of Kakhovka in the Kherson region, which he allegedly passed to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Similar actions carried out later were also attributed to Tkachenko.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained a Russian citizen who was allegedly assembling homemade bombs "on orders from Ukrainian intelligence services." According to the FSB, a 4.8 kg bomb, components for making explosives, cartridges, ammunition and World War II-era weapons were found at his home, along with a smartphone "used to communicate with Ukrainian intelligence services." Law enforcement officers claim that the man was recruited in October 2023. Allegedly, he was paid to assemble bombs, which Ukrainian intelligence services intended to use in terrorist attacks in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Tula regions. He has been charged with preparation of an act of terror.

Assistance

Sergey Nosov, the head of Russia’s Magadan region, has announced plans to supply reindeer hides to soldiers on the frontlines. According to Nosov, the unique properties of reindeer fur and skin are expected to help camouflage troops from enemy forces and drone radar systems, offering a natural advantage in cold conditions.

Children

Schoolchildren at School No. 309 in Saint Petersburg painted figurines of Cheburashka [a character in the Soviet children’s literature] to be sent to the frontlines.  Figurines are painted dressed in military uniforms adorned with the Russian and equipped with toy machine guns as reported by Rotonda.

Across Russia and in the occupied territories of Ukraine, state institutions, including schools and universities, recently held a "Military-Patriotic Dictation" exercise. Participants were tested on topics including heroes of the "special military operation," NATO expansion, and Ukrainian nationalists.

Kursk Region

Following a meeting between Aleksey Smirnov, the governor of the Kursk region, and residents of the border districts, where he dismissed the head of the Sudzhansky district and recommended that Marina Degtyaryova, the head of the Korenevsky district, resign, Degtyaryova stated in an interview with RT [Russia Today, a Russian state-controlled international news television network] that she had "no intention of stepping down" and would continue her work. In response, local residents launched a petition demanding Degtyaryova's dismissal "due to a loss of public trust." To date, over 2,000 people have signed the petition.

Miscellaneous

The head of the Samara region, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, dismissed Dmitry Kholin, the former mayor of Zhigulevsk. Kholin, who was mobilized in 2022, managed to secure an early discharge from military service in February 2024 and, as has been reported, assumed the position of deputy governor of the region. However, it was later revealed that his discharge and subsequent appointment violated military orders. As a result, Fedorishchev acknowledged the violation, and Kholin was ordered to return to his military unit.