Volunteer summary of mobilization in the Russian Federation for October 11-12

In contrast to yesterday's statements by the heads of the Voronezh,Rostov and Kursk regions about the beginning of the second wave of mobilization, the deputy chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee Yuri Shvytkin stated that mobilization is not divided into stages. He is echoed by the military commissar of Yakutia Aleksandr Avdonin: "The mobilization task has not been expanded, as they said - the second wave, the third wave, we are not discussing these yet." Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary for the Russian President also stated: “There is no new wave of mobilization. And each individual governor needs to be asked what they meant”. After that, the military commissar of the Rostov region, Igor Yegorov, denied reports of a second wave of “partial” mobilization and reported that in the Rostov region the call-up of reservists did not stop and continues according to the assignment from the Ministry of Defense. In Buryatia, the Trans-Baikal Territory and the Ryazan Region, the second wave was renamed "additional recruitment".

The State Duma member Galina Khovanskaya spoke of a bill being prepared which would allocate housing without a waiting period to servicemen who participated in the “special military operation in Ukraine” and were maimed or became seriously ill.

The Prosecutor General Krasnov stated that his office has already identified nearly 900 resources providing false information about the “partial” mobilization and calling for unauthorized actions of protest. As one of them, Krasnov counted the video showing the rusted assault rifles being distributed to mobilized men in the Primorski Region.

The General Staff of the RF Armed Forces sent out the list of all categories of people eligible for postponement of their mobilization under law to all the draft offices. The document is dated October 4. In Ekaterinburg, school principals and their deputies will be granted postponement. In Pskov, a man was granted a postponement from mobilization because his son had already been mobilized for the war in Ukraine.

Since the beginning of the “partial” mobilization, Russian citizens have been looking more actively for remote work as well as for positions that would make them eligible for postponement of military service, even at a paycut. Also, once the mobilization was announced, Moscow men enrolled in universities in large numbers.

South Ural State University will pay out 15 thousand rubles and provide additional benefits to students and families of the mobilized. Authorities in Kaliningrad Region want to pay out the same sum to the families of the mobilized. In Moscow, additional 50 thousand rubles per month were announced for the mobilized whose families would be able to receive the payments. The Belgorod mayor Anton Ivanov following the Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s lead also announced payments to the families of the mobilized citizen but only in the amount of 3 thousand rubles. In Tuva, preschoolers from the families of the mobilized on the waiting list to join kindergarten will receive their spots right away.

To help locate mobilization evaders, the authorities are combining databases from traffic police, border control, tax collectors, hospitals, hotels, police, etc. Police raids on evaders suggest that the Internal Affairs Ministry has access to the databases maintained by the draft offices. In Moscow, for example, the police have raided hostels and small hotels looking for evaders. Traffic police officers, on their part, are entering the license plate numbers of the evaders into the Potok (Stream) license plate recognition system. The database coordination doesn’t always work and occasionally has glitches. For example, a Moscow student who was granted postponement from being called up got detained twice in two days because the facial recognition system flagged him as a draft evader. In St. Petersburg Krasnoselski district, the call up papers are now being sent attached to utility bills.

In Moscow, a citizen of Uzbekistan, Sirozha Nabiev, who does not even have a residence permit, received a summons. Also, in Moscow an IT worker serviced trains for Russian Railways was mobilized, as well as another IT worker who is on the deferment list. A Moscow resident was served a summons by video conference via WhatsApp.

Mobilized people from St. Petersburg complained about alterations of their military IDs. In Krasnodar, a citizen with a spinal hernia was mobilized, although he cannot even wear a bulletproof vest. The mother of a mobilized resident of Lipetsk with lung disease asked Putin to bring her son home. A nurse was offered an internship at a hospital on the Ukrainian border. He ended up in the tank forces.

In order not to participate in the war, 23 Russians tried to escape mobilization by boat to South Korea.

More problems with the organization of the "partial" mobilization: soldiers were simply left in front of the gates of the training center of the Military Academy of Aerospace Defense in Tver without any further explanation or instructions. And the mobilized from Vladimir are forced to sleep on the floor. This contrasts greatly with the coverage of the mobilization in the pro-Kremlin media. This is how "Izvestia" shows how the mobilized from Primorye are sent to war. A train of mobilized soldiers, who will undergo combat training at training ranges of the Southern Military District, was dispatched from Saratov. At the same time, new videos of the training process itself are being published: the Trans-Baikal Territory, Tatarstan, the so-called DPR, and the Kherson Region.

Mark Krutov's report for "Radio Liberty" about the situation in the field camps near the border.

Bumaga media outlet published a story of a St. Petersburg resident who was mobilized with serious kidney disease and witnessed the suicide of a fellow soldier.

The following leaflets are designed to raise the morale of mobilized men; you can see them, in particular, in the training unit in Yelan.

The "It's my life" Sverdlovsk region's local news outlet (citing the member of State Duma Maksim Ivanov), described the death of yet another conscript in the Elan army basic training camp. They claim the soldier (born in 1989) died from a drug overdose. Meduza independent news outlet is keeping track of all cases where new conscripts had died before they've been shipped off to the front lines. In the past three weeks, they've identified 20 such cases.

Russian citizens continue to care for new draftees, putting in their own money and effort. Abakan's women are knitting and sewing together warm clothing for the soldiers. In Belgorod, funds collection is strictly enforced, with threats of employment termination for those who do not donate. In Kazan, teachers in primary schools are advising their students to collect and donate warm socks and gloves. In Kursk, manufacturing facilities and penitentiaries have been converted to war production. They will now make clothes for the army. Yet more humanitarian aid (more than 20 tons) for the new conscripts has been shipped from Murmansk.

Member of the State Duma, Vitaly Milonov still cannot go back to war. This time he claims it's the Russian bureaucratic hurdles that are in the way. He (a Russian Army sergeant major) would need to apply as a volunteer to be enlisted. Secretary of the General Council of the United Russia party, Andrey Turchak announced that both State Duma members, Vitaly Milonov and Alexander Borodai, have today visited their respective conscription offices and will soon be shipped off to the area of conflict.

FSB operatives in Nizhny Tagil detained a Mariupol resident. He is suspected of plotting an assault on the conscription office. In Ryazan, an arson suspect was arrested, who was allegedly trying to set fire to the conscription office and the courthouse.

Human rights lawyer, Pavel Chikov is saying that a Russian court, for the first time, has referred to an offense committed "during the partial mobilization" as the reason for pre-trial confinement. However, there is good news too, he said. For the first time, a court postponed conscription orders. The court ruled that a Russian male, who had already been shipped to an army base, should now be returned home to participate in the court proceedings. It's up to the Army to organize his transfer.

Komi region's Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages has switched to a full 7 days a week roster. They now perform marriage ceremonies every day. These images show what these ceremonies look like. The Kazan circus organized a special performance for the conscripts from Bashkortostan. Against the backdrop of the "partial" mobilization process, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation is suggesting the regions change the tone of their public events and festivities. They recommend a more informative approach rather than purely entertaining.

Verstka media outlet has refuted earlier reports about conscription of the refugees from Mariupol.