Mobilization in Russia for Nov. 25-27, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary

Authorities and Legislation

A draft set of amendments has been published that would revise the rules for granting draft deferrals to employees of accredited IT companies. Under the proposal, a draft deferral would be available to employees with at least 11 months of work experience during the year preceding their call-up and who hold a university degree in one of the approved fields, as well as to recent graduates who sign an employment contract within one year of receiving their diploma. The draft also clarifies the procedure for submitting information to MinTsifry [the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of Russia]. Under the proposed rules, employees would be able to upload their own data, which companies would then verify and submit. The list of required information would be expanded, and work experience accumulated across multiple accredited companies could be combined. The timeline for submitting rosters has likewise been updated: companies would have to send their lists to MinTsifry 50 days before the start of the conscription campaign, after which MinTsifry would forward them to the Ministry of Defense 30 days before the conscription campaign begins. However, recent amendments to the government’s Regulations on Conscription for Military Service require MinTsifry to send the lists of IT specialists 30 days before the start of the dispatch period, meaning by April 1 or Oct. 1. The newly proposed amendments, by contrast, set a different deadline: "30 calendar days before the start date of the regular conscription," which would fall on Jan. 1, since beginning in 2026, conscription will run year-round. As a result, two formally conflicting requirements now appear to exist.

Army Recruitment

According to the OpenMinds organization, which studies information warfare, the number of Russian contract-service ads targeting foreign nationals has increased more than sevenfold since last summer. An analysis of content on the VKontakte social network shows that by mid-2025 every third post promoting military contracts was aimed at foreigner nationals, compared with just 7 percent a year earlier. The data indicate that roughly half of the advertising target Russian-speaking foreigners from post-Soviet states, while the rest are directed at African countries, India, Bangladesh, Iraq, Yemen and others. Ukraine has identified more than 18,000 foreigners from 128 countries who have fought or are fighting for Russia, at least 3,388 of whom have been killed. Around 200 more people from 37 countries have been taken prisoner. The number of foreign fighters captured in the first nine months of this year is twice the figure for all of last year, which itself was five times higher than in 2023.

Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts

A mobilized soldier with a mental disorder attempted to take his own life. The 27-year-old man had been wounded several times in the three years since mobilization, and two of his uncles were killed on the frontline. Early this summer, he returned home, where he suffered a breakdown and began to believe that his relatives were trying to kill him. He was placed in a psychiatric hospital for nine months. Three months ago, the soldier was discharged with a diagnosis of mixed personality disorder and assigned service fitness category "V" (partially fit for military service), which prohibits him from handling weapons and requires constant psychiatric supervision. Despite this, his unit commander twice refused to release him from service and is preparing to send him back to the war. On Nov. 26, he met with a friend to say goodbye before deployment. When the friend stepped away, the soldier took out a knife and attempted to kill himself. He is now unconscious in a psychiatric hospital.

A Kaliningrad resident who was being prosecuted for incitement to extremism signed a contract with the MoD and found himself unable to receive payments. In August 2024, the man was deployed to the war in Ukraine, despite the legal prohibition of contract military service for individuals with certain charges, including incitement to extremism. Several weeks after deployment, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation (Rosfinmonitoring) added him to the list of extremists and terrorists. As a result, his bank accounts were suspended, making it impossible to receive payments. In 2025, the man was convicted and fined 200,000 rubles [$2,550], which was paid by his mother. The prosecution has appealed the verdict, but the court has suspended the consideration of the case on appeal, as the man is a participant in the "special military operation." Given the automatic extension of military contracts, it is possible that he will maintain this status until the end of the war. While his conviction remains under appeal, it is not possible to exclude him from the list of extremists and terrorists.

Former Vladivostok mayor Oleg Gumenyuk, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined 150 million rubles [$1.91 million] on charges of taking 38 million rubles [$483,800] in bribes, has been released from punishment after receiving a state award for participation in the war. He was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th Class. The court also lifted the lien on eight real estate and transport properties belonging to him. Enforcement proceedings against Gumenyuk had already been terminated in the summer of 2025. In January 2024, his lawyer reported that Gumenyuk had gone to war in Ukraine to avoid imprisonment.

Andrey Amonov, a mobilized road worker from Russia's constituent republic of Sakha (Yakutia) who fled his military unit through a hole in the fence, has been granted refugee status in France. This decision was issued by the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons. Amonov will be able to live in France for the next ten years.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

A court in the Irkutsk region has sentenced former Wagner Group mercenary Vasily Prokopyev to 11 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of causing grievous bodily harm and the death of a person, taking into account a prior conviction for similar offenses. In March 2024, he received a three-year suspended sentence for a knife attack. Already in August of that same year, while spending the night at acquaintances’ home and drinking with them, he got into an argument with the host and assaulted him with a metal crutch. The victim died from a traumatic brain injury. The court considered Prokopyev’s participation in the war, his young children and the awards he received for military service. Prokopyev had previously been convicted at least six times. After his most recent sentence, he is believed to have joined the Wagner Group.

The Sarov City Court has sentenced former Wagner Group mercenary Denis Kazakov to eight years in a maximum security penal colony for murder. On April 16, 2025, Kazakov got into an argument with his partner, Anastasia, and killed her during the dispute. He surrendered to police the following day. In determining the sentence, the court took into account Kazakov’s participation in the war in Ukraine, his "combat veteran" status and his military awards. He had prior convictions. He likely joined the Wagner Group while serving time in a penal colony and was later pardoned—the court treated him as having no prior criminal record.

On Oct. 15, the Novosibirsk Garrison Military Court sentenced 33-year-old former Wagner mercenary Vasily Divishchenko to seven years in a maximum security penal colony for intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm resulting in death by negligence. According to the verdict, Divishchenko got into an argument with a man named Starchenko during a drinking gathering and brutally beat him, after which Starchenko died from a traumatic brain injury. Divishchenko himself reported the incident. He pleaded guilty and expressed remorse, and the court took into account his contract service as well as the fact that he had previously been pardoned by Putin.

In the Sverdlovsk region, another Wagner Group fighter, Petr Gasyuk, was sentenced to four and a half years in a penal colony for fraud. According to prosecutors, he was part of a criminal group that targeted and deceived elderly people. Gasyuk asked the court for leniency due to his participation in the fighting. The court record lists him as "previously not convicted," even though a 2015 verdict stated that he had multiple prior convictions for theft and robbery and had committed crimes while under administrative supervision. At that time, he was sentenced to nine years in a special-regime penal colony, from which he likely enlisted into the Wagner Group after receiving a pardon.

Eight residents of the Nizhny Novgorod region have been charged with fraud for appropriating the money belonging to war participants. One of the detainees is also implicated in the fatal poisoning of five people in August 2024. According to investigators, the defendant deceived an acquaintance into selling a share in an apartment and misappropriated the funds from the deal. He then persuaded the acquaintance to marry his stepdaughter, after which he stole his military payments. Fearing that the victim would report him to the police, the accused gave him a liquid containing methanol. As a result, the serviceman and four other people were fatally poisoned. Since 2024, other members of the group have been appropriating contract soldiers’ money by entering into fictitious marriages with them and obtaining the status of their legal representatives to manage their finances. The amount of illegally appropriated money exceeded 4 million rubles [$50,900].

In Moscow, two people were detained on charges of extorting 1.3 million rubles [$16,500] from wounded war participants. According to law enforcement, the men threatened the war participant with forced discharge from the hospital where he was undergoing treatment and deployment to the frontline. The alleged extortionists were detained during the transfer of money. During a search of the suspects, two items "structurally similar to pistols" were found.

A court in Rostov has sentenced eight defendants (1, 2) to life imprisonment in the case of the bombing of the Crimean Bridge: Artyom Azatyan, Georgy Azatyan, Oleg Antipov, Aleksandr Bylin, Ukrainian citizen Volodymyr Zlob, Moldovan and Ukrainian citizen Roman Solomko, Armenian citizen and truck driver Artur Terchanyan and Dmitry Tyazhyolykh. All were charged with an act of terror and transporting explosives, while two defendants—Solomko and Terchanyan—also faced charges of smuggling explosives. The court also granted a civil suit against the defendants totaling 7 billion rubles [$89.11 million]. According to investigators, six businessmen, a farmer and a long-haul trucker helped Ukrainian intelligence services blow up a truck laden with explosives, killing five people—though the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Vasyl Maliuk, previously admitted that Ukrainian intelligence services had used the cargo transporters as unwitting accomplices. None of the defendants admitted guilt—all maintain they were unaware of the cargo and were simply doing their regular work. Some of them voluntarily approached the Federal Security Service (FSB) after the explosion.

The Second Western District Military Court has sentenced Ignat Kuzin to life imprisonment on charges of murdering Deputy Chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik. Kuzin was found guilty of committing an act of terror, terrorist training, participation in a terrorist organization, possession and manufacturing of explosives and use of a forged document. According to prosecutors, in 2023 Kuzin agreed to kill Moskalik for money and surveilled his apartment from fall 2023 through April 2025, having rented a residence nearby. He then retrieved surveillance cameras, a detonator, and approximately 500 grams of explosives from a cache and brought them to his apartment. In February 2025, he purchased a vehicle, planted a bomb inside it and parked it near the entrance of the building where the general lived. On April 25, Moskalik exited the building, and the vehicle exploded, killing him. Kuzin was detained the day after the explosion.

In the Penza region, two teenagers will stand trial on charges of committing a terrorist attack and money laundering. According to investigators, intelligence operatives from a foreign state contacted a 15-year-old boy in October 2024, after which he recruited his 16-year-old friend. In November, the two allegedly set fire to several mobile phone towers in Penza, for which they received 12,498 rubles [$160]. Both teenagers were placed under house arrest pending trial.

In the Altai region, Russia’s federal subject, four young people, ages 14, 17, 19 and 20, were detained on charges of attempting to carry out a terrorist attack as part of a group. Investigators say that in early November they tried to set fire to a relay cabinet on the Barnaul-Yuzhny railway section in exchange for a promised payment of 25,000 rubles [$320], which they never received.

A court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced 21-year-old St. Petersburg resident Aleksandr Ushakov to 10 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of justifying terrorism, intended treason and participation in a terrorist organization. Law enforcement authorities claim that in March 2024 he posted positive comments about the activities of the Russian Volunteer Corps and later attempted to contact the group. Ushakov allegedly filled out a recruitment form for joining the unit and traveled to Sochi with the aim of crossing into Georgia and enlisting in the unit, but he was detained at a border-control checkpoint in August of last year.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) has charged geophysicist and archaeologist Andrey Veryanov with planning to blow up an "aircraft belonging to a high‑ranking official of the Russian Federation." The intelligence services did not identify the official allegedly targeted. Veryanov had previously been sentenced to 24 years in a penal colony on treason charges. At that time, prosecutors accused him of establishing contact with representatives of Ukrainian intelligence services and the Freedom of Russia Legion and of "assembling and launching drones to create false targets" near Russian air defense systems.

A court in Khabarovsk has sentenced a resident of Komsomolsk‑on‑Amur to 17 years in prison and a fine in a treason case. Investigators allege that in 2024 the man established contact with Ukrainian intelligence services and, between August and October, passed information about the operations of a defense company in the Khabarovsk region. The prosecutor’s office did not specify which company was involved or what data was transferred. Officials have not released the name of the convicted man, who was reportedly detained in February of this year.

Longreads

Novaya Gazeta Europe [European edition of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta] has published a report showing how some regions are reducing payments for signing contracts, while others, conversely, are increasing them by cutting social spending.

The Vot Tak [Like This] media outlet recounts the stories of several men who became victims of so-called "black widows," whose goal is to enter into a fictitious marriage, send the husband to the frontline and then gain access to his payments.

The Vyorstka media outlet shared the stories of people with diagnosed mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, who, under new regulations, can legally sign military contracts and be sent to the frontline.