Mobilization in Russia for Oct. 11-12, 2023 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
The State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia] approved a bill, which would eliminate the legal requirement to notify the Council of Europe when declaring or lifting martial law or a state of emergency. President Putin, who introduced the bill, argues in the explanatory note that this requirement should be eliminated, since the European Convention on Human Rights ceased to apply to Russia in March 2022.
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
During a meeting on the replenishment of the Russian Armed Forces, Dmitry Medvedev [Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council] asserted that more than 357,000 individuals signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense since Jan. 1 in order to fight in the war against Ukraine. On Sept. 26, he claimed that 325,000 individuals had enlisted since the beginning of the year. Therefore, the rate of recruitment, according to Medvedev, has been exactly 2,000 people per day in the last two weeks.
In the Tyumen region, authorities are recruiting women aged from 18 to 50 to participate in the war against Ukraine, according to the information center of the regional government. They are primarily looking for people with medical education. The press release also indicated that men under the age of 60, and in some cases 65, can enlist. Meanwhile, in Belgorod, city authorities inaugurated a recruitment bus. The officers and instructors onboard fought in the war in Ukraine and will now be campaigning for local residents to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense. Applying for contract-based military service will be possible on the spot. The claimed throughput of such a selection point is reportedly 100 people per day.
Yury Gusarov, Military Commissar of the Vladimir region, reported that in 2023, over 2,000 residents of the region, including 10 women, have signed contracts to participate in the war against Ukraine. Also, according to him, 20% of the total number of conscripts have been deployed to the war.
The Western Military District plans to recruit 40,000 people for regular biannual conscription during the fall draft. By Oct. 11, more than 36,000 people had attended draft board meetings in the district, and about 12,000 are now preparing to depart for service in Russia’s Armed Forces.
Mobilized Soldiers and Volunteer Fighters
The list of mobilized soldiers killed in the war has been updated to include Yevgeny Karpenko from the Sverdlovsk region, Vladimir Smirnov from the Pskov region, and Pavel Pensky from the Volgograd region.
Since mid-May, over 100 new graves of Wagner Group mercenaries have appeared at the Gusinobrodskoye cemetery in Novosibirsk. The dates of death on the latest burials range from the end of April to the beginning of June. In total, 350 mercenaries are buried in this cemetery.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
A court in Buryatia [Russia's constituent republic] convicted Sergeant Aleksey Krasikov to six years in a penal colony for going AWOL and causing bodily harm. Krasikov had been missing from duty since Jan. 7, 2023 and was detained by military police only on June 2 after stabbing his girlfriend’s thigh with a knife during an alcohol-fueled altercation.
Lieutenant Colonel Irek Magasumov from Tatarstan [Russia's constituent republic] was arrested for the second time on charges of murder of an 18-year-old girl in Luhansk and will be detained in custody till Dec. 11. For more information on this case, click here. Meanwhile, war veteran Lieutenant Colonel Ruslan Kachlavov who was the first Russian serviceman to be accused of looting, was placed under house arrest.
The Rostov Garrison Military Court sentenced mobilized soldier Andrey Abliyev to six years in a maximum security penal colony for assaulting a senior officer. Abliyev attacked the second commander with an ax and broke his arm after being reprimanded for drinking alcohol.
The same court sentenced Roman Chernyavsky, a mobilized soldier, to three years in a penal settlement for violating the rules of handling a weapon, which resulted in a person’s death. In January 2023, Chernyavsky, while in a state of alcohol intoxication, failed to put the assault rifle on safe and accidentally shot a fellow soldier in the head when he stumbled. The fellow soldier died on the spot.
The Chita Garrison Military Court fined Private Yegor Mineyev 60,000 rubles [$600] for assaulting a police officer. The incident occurred when the police stopped the car in which Mineyev was a passenger.
The Irkutsk Garrison Military Court sentenced Private Dmitry Golubyov to six years in a penal colony for going AWOL. On Feb. 14, he left the military unit without valid reasons and returned on March 20, but fled again the very next day. The police arrested him on April 24.
In the Kamchatka region [Russia’s federal subject], a military court sentenced servicemen Yevgeny Parasochka and Viktor Shkvarkapo to two years and six months in a penal settlement for refusing to go to war in Ukraine. The court found them guilty of failing to execute orders during the period of mobilization.
In the Kaluga region, an arson attempt occurred on a railway. Unidentified individuals set fire to a relay cabinet near the Fayansovaya station, resulting in several trains being delayed by 10 minutes. The arsonists are being sought police.
In Magadan, two local residents were detained on suspicion of setting fire to a draft office. According to law enforcement officers, one of the suspects attempted to purchase drugs and got in touch with an unknown person who offered her 50,000 rubles [$500] for setting fire to the draft office. Together with her accomplice, the woman attempted to ignite the building. Firefighters quickly extinguished the flames, with only items inside the draft office being damaged.
The Leningrad Regional Court received a criminal case of sabotage against 27-year-old Aleksandr Grishko and 32-year-old Miroslav Pobedinsky. These residents of Saint Petersburg were arrested at the end of May. Initially, they were only accused of property destruction, but later, the charges were escalated to sabotage. According to investigators, they set fire to several relay and battery cabinets in the Krasnogvardeysky district of Saint Petersburg, allegedly admitting afterward that they were promised "20,000 rubles [$200] for the arson."
The Federal Security Service (FSB) has reported the arrest of an 18-year-old resident of Arkhangelsk accused of attempting to commit an act of terror in September 2023. According to investigators, he was charged with aiding terrorist activities on behalf of a terrorist organization banned in Russia. He allegedly tried to set fire to military vehicles on the premises of a local military unit using a homemade explosive mixture. His arrest had been previously reported, but the FSB has only officially confirmed it now.
Assistance
The Chuvash Republic government has passed a bill to grant exemption from the vehicle tax for passenger cars with engines up to 150 horsepower to veterans of the war with Ukraine. In the Novosibirsk region, participants in the war with Ukraine, other combat veterans and large families have approached local deputies due to difficulties in obtaining the promised preferential land plots.
MiscellaneousÂ
Journalists from the Mozhem Ob'yasnit [We can explain] Telegram channel studied the budget project of the Social Fund of Russia for 2024 and found that expenses for compensations to the families of deceased servicemen will rise up to 5.25 billion rubles [$52.5 million], marking a 2.2 billion rubles [$22 million] increase. Thus, according to their assessment, this equals to payments to the families of 100,000 servicemen killed in action.
The Vyorstka media outlet discovered that over the course of a year, the number of combat veterans and their relatives receiving monthly social allowances has increased by 127,000 people. This number corresponds to the publicly announced number of veterans of the war in Ukraine, which officials stated as 133,000 people. In September 2023 alone, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection might have allocated over 269 million rubles [$2.69 million] for payments to veterans of the war in Ukraine and their relatives.