Mobilization in Russia for Nov. 26-28, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
The State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia] has passed a bill in its third and final reading that would empower authorities to conceal information about their operations if martial law is declared. The proposed changes grant the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Investigative Committee and various courts the authority to restrict public access to information regarding the actions of federal, regional and local authorities in areas under martial law.
Additionally, lawmakers have introduced a bill into the State Duma that permits "special military operation veterans" to purchase repeating and rifled firearms without prior experience of owning a smoothbore weapon.
The federal government has adopted a resolution allowing military personnel on leave, including for medical reasons, to seek treatment at civilian hospitals. Previously, servicemembers could only access medical care at Ministry of Defense hospitals due to the lack of mandatory health insurance policies.
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
Yevgeny Burdinsky, Deputy Chief of the General Staff, announced that the BARS volunteer units formed this year in Crimea, Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk have been equipped with howitzers, electronic warfare systems, flamethrowers and all-terrain vehicles.
Oleg Veselkov, the head of the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces, announced the introduction of new positions for assistants to commanders focusing on work with religious soldiers in Russia’s military districts. Currently, over 100 Russian Orthodox chaplains are deployed in combat zones.
In the Ulyanovsk region, the sign-up bonus for concluding a contract with the MoD was increased by 1.5 million rubles [$13,500] from Nov. 27 through the end of the year. Previously, the bonus in the region amounted to 1 million rubles [$8,980]. Now, contract soldiers will receive 2.5 million rubles [$22,400] upfront. Since early October, at least ten federal subjects have raised their sign-up bonuses for deployment to the war, according to the Mozhem Ob'yasnit [We Can Explain] Telegram channel.
Raids targeting migrants and naturalized citizens continue across Russia. In the city of Chelyabinsk, law enforcement officers checked over 100 individuals arriving on international flights, as well as those meeting them. A similar operation took place at Koltsovo Airport in the Sverdlovsk region, where 60 people were inspected. Seven of them, who had recently obtained Russian citizenship but failed to register for military service, were detained and taken to a draft office. Another raid occurred in the Saratov region, where law enforcement officers stopped "suspicious drivers." Reports indicate that around 20 men evading registration for military service were taken to a draft office.
In the Khabarovsk region, Sergey Baturin, a police officer from Komsomolsk-on-Amur, accused of exceeding his official authority, has decided to join the war effort without waiting for the outcome of his trial, taking advantage of the recently enacted law. According to investigators, Baturin beat a handcuffed detainee who was lying on the floor, an incident that was captured on CCTV. In June 2024, he was sent to pre-trial detention on charges of exceeding his official authority, and the case was transferred to court in October. However, at the beginning of November, the case was suspended after Baturin signed a contract with the MoD.
A court in the Kursk region has suspended the criminal case against 57-year-old local resident Vladimir Pashkov after he chose to join the war in Ukraine. Pashkov had been accused of the murder of an acquaintance with whom he had been drinking. No further details of the crime are provided.
Mikhail Zh., a 19-year-old university student, has been conscripted despite having health issues. In April 2024, he was found fit for military service with minor restrictions. Subsequently, Mikhail filed a lawsuit challenging the assigned service fitness category. However, at the beginning of fall, he was issued a draft notice for Oct. 20. Although the results of his medical evaluation remained unchanged, they only took effect on Nov. 26. On Nov. 16, he was summoned to the district police officer and taken to the military collection point from there. A subsequent medical evaluation did not document any diagnoses, and as a result, Mikhail was sent to the army.
Aleksandr Komarov, a 24-year-old student at Moscow State University, was drafted into the military due to a three-year-old academic leave of absence. Detained last Friday in the metro, he was first taken to a police station and then forcibly transferred to the Moscow military collection point on Ugreshskaya Street. There, a medical evaluation reclassified his service fitness category from "V" (partially fit) to "B-3" (fit with minor restrictions). He was almost immediately sent to serve in the Tambov region. Komarov reported that around 100 other detainees were held with him as part of a two-week operation targeting alleged draft dodgers.
Human rights organizations have reported widespread roundups of conscripts in Moscow, describing them as the most extensive since the start of the war. According to the Prizyv k Sovesti [Call to Conscience] coalition, even those visiting local military commissariats [enlistment offices] to register, appealing draft decisions in court or seeking alternative civilian service have been targeted. Young men are taken to the Unified Military Recruitment Center and then sent to the military collection point on Ugreshskaya Street. Reports of violence against conscripts at the collection point, including the use of stun guns, have also been documented by activists. The anti-war Telegram channel Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] has been tracking these roundups for weeks, while Alexey Tabalov, founder of the Shkola Prizyvnika [Conscript School], and Ivan Chuvilyaev, spokesperson for Idite Lesom!, told Mozhem Ob'yasnit that this year’s fall conscription campaign in Moscow is among the harshest in history. Both noted a rise in complaints about police and enlistment office practices. Meanwhile, the Sever.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet published a detailed report on Russia’s 2024 fall conscription campaign.
Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers
Another conscript soldier has been reported dead. Denis Fertikov from Udmurtia [Russia’s constituent republic], born on December 29, 2005, was drafted in June 2024 and was killed on Oct. 27 in the Bryansk region at the age of 18, as revealed in November. Additionally, reports have surfaced about the death of 19-year-old conscript Timur Maksimov from Chuvashia [Russia’s constituent republic], who had signed a contract with the MoD.
The MoD has denied the discharge of Vasily Grigoryev, a mobilized soldier from Pskov who returned from captivity and was mentioned in a previous summary. His defense cited the 1949 Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war, which stipulates that no repatriated individual can be used in active military service. However, the MoD, in its response, referred to Article 110 of the Convention, which outlines categories of prisoners eligible for immediate repatriation. According to the Ministry, Grigoryev does not fall under any of the specified categories, and therefore, his discharge from military service is not warranted.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
A court in Omsk has sentenced serviceman Madi Syzdykov to one year and eight months in a penal settlement for brutally assaulting a stranger over critical remarks about the "special military operation."
In Nizhny Tagil, Samat Khazipov, a participant in the war, has been detained on suspicion of robbery. He was previously sentenced to 13 years for the murder of a children's coach in 2017. While serving his sentence, he was recruited for the war and subsequently pardoned. After returning from the frontline in July 2024, he snatched a gold chain from a woman.
Sergey Moskalenko, a contract soldier from Adygea [Russia's constituent republic], has been sentenced to 10 years in a penal colony for failing to obey an order, going AWOL and desertion. This is one of the harshest sentences for such charges in the Southern Military District. The verdict stated that Moskalenko failed to report for deployment to the zone of the "special military operation" and subsequently went into hiding from his command.
A court in the Vladimir region has sentenced a 41-year-old employee of a penal colony No. 7 to one year of imprisonment for divulgence of state secrets. According to the court, the Federal Penitentiary Service employee disclosed information classified as "top secret." The penal colony No. 7 in the village of Pakino was converted into a camp for Ukrainian POWs and civilians from the occupied territories in June 2022. Human rights activists, citing individuals released through prisoner exchanges, have reported cases of torture in this penal colony.
Two Russian citizens have been detained in Abkhazia after entering the unrecognized republic using forged Russian documents. One of the detainees, Pavel Koptsev, was allegedly "preparing sabotage and subversive activities on behalf of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)." The second detainee, Vladislav Lisov, deserted from the army and had the status of "having gone AWOL." Both men have been handed over to the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia.
Law enforcement officers have detained a resident of the town of Snizhne in the occupied part of the Donetsk region. He is suspected of setting fire to various objects "on the orders of Ukrainian intelligence services with the aim of destabilizing the social situation." Authorities are also investigating his involvement in setting fire to a relay cabinet on a railway in the Moscow region.
In Saint Petersburg, authorities have begun distributing leaflets in apartment buildings and schools urging people not to participate in sabotage or set fire to draft offices.
In Murmansk, a local resident has been arrested in a criminal case on confidential cooperation with a foreign state. This is the first case under this article in the region.
Roman Shport, a Moscow resident, who is accused of calls for terrorism, is now also facing criminal charges for confidential cooperation with representatives of a foreign state.
The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow has arrested two individuals, M.B. Nekrasov and T.N. Omelchenko, in a criminal case concerning high treason. The case files have been classified.
A resident of Crimea, whose name has not been disclosed, has been detained in the Pskov region and sentenced to 12 years in prison for high treason. According to the FSB, between August and December 2022, the individual filmed personnel, military vehicles and unit positions of the Russian Armed Forces in Crimea. The information was allegedly passed to Ukrainian military and intelligence services. The detention was made public in December 2023.
Lyubov Voynova, a resident of Russian-occupied Melitopol, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison on charges of high treason. Prosecutors allege that in August 2023, she provided information on Russian forces movements to an officer of Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate. Her arrest had not been previously reported.
Assistance
Starting Oct. 1, 2024, the Primorsky region [Russia's federal subject] has begun to pay 30,000 rubles [$270] monthly for the children of fallen "Heroes of Primorye." The support will continue until the child turns 18 or up to 23 if they study full-time. For children with disabilities diagnosed before the age of 18, the payments will continue for the duration of the disability. Six children from five families of participants in the war with Ukraine will receive these payments.
A military store in the Nizhny Novgorod region appears to sell aid collected by schoolchildren from the Rostov region for soldiers. A local man purchased camouflage nets for protection against bad weather. Upon unpacking, he found postcards with February 23 [Defender of the Fatherland Day] greetings, signed by seventh-grade students from a school in Novoshakhtinsk, Rostov region. The store owner said he bought the nets on Avito, the largest Russian classified advertisements website.
Miscellaneous
112 teachers from the Pskov region, who teach Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland, underwent physical training and military drills.
Longreads
Novaya Gazeta Europe [European edition of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta] shared the story of an orphan with intellectual and mental disabilities who was coerced into signing a contract with the MoD and subsequently sent into combat.
The Lyudi Baikala [People of Baikal] independent media outlet published a report on how veterans of the war in Ukraine are securing employment in educational institutions.
Novaya Gazeta [independent Russian newspaper] released an article detailing how Russian schools are organizing fundraising efforts to support the war in Ukraine.
BBC News Russian reviewed dozens of court cases filed by residents from the Kursk and Belgorod regions seeking compensation for homes destroyed in the war, and found that many of these claims may never result in payouts.