Mobilization in Russia for Oct. 18-20, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary

Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising

In the Khabarovsk region, authorities revoked the Russian citizenship of three individuals of Tajik origin, who had been naturalized in August but failed to register for military service within the period defined by a new law. Their passports have been annulled, and they are now required to leave Russia. The Ministry of Internal Affairs called this the "first instance in the Far East," although similar cases have occurred elsewhere in the country (1, 2). The independent investigative media outlet Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories] has documented at least 12 cases of individuals losing their acquired citizenship under similar circumstances. Notably, two people had their citizenship revoked even before the new law took effect. In December 2023, a court in Chelyabinsk annulled the passports of two men for violating Russian laws. The first person to lose Russian citizenship under the new law was Mirzomukhammad Karimov, a critical care doctor at the Krasnoyarsk Emergency Hospital, who was stripped of his citizenship in September 2024.

Notices to debtors from the Federal Bailiff Service now begin with an invitation to join the "special military operation," indicating that during their participation, authorities will suspend all enforcement actions on their debts and will refrain from any coercive measures.

Dmitry Shabunyaev, former chief physician of a clinic and member of the Arkhangelsk City Council representing United Russia [Putin's ruling party], has gone to war. According to the Arkhangelsk administration's website, he led a team of medical workers from the Arkhangelsk region to provide healthcare to children in the self-proclaimed "DPR" in 2022 and 2023. In February of this year, Shabunyaev was involved in a physical altercation with a veteran of the war against Ukraine, who was undergoing treatment at the clinic which Shabunyaev was heading. Later, he fatally struck a pedestrian with his car. According to sources cited by the Sota media outlet, this accident was the reason he decided to enlist.

Igor Pushkaryov, the former mayor of Vladivostok who was sentenced in 2019 to 15 years in a penal colony for bribery and abuse of authority, has also been deployed to the war. In the summer of 2024, Pushkaryov requested to have his punishment substituted with compulsory labor, but this was denied. The new administration of the penal colony informed him that early release was only possible  if he signed a contract to participate in the war. Pushkaryov became the second former mayor of Vladivostok to be released from a penal colony to join the war against Ukraine. In 2023, Oleg Gumenyuk, who had been sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony for corruption crimes, joined the war effort. He had served as the city's mayor from 2018 to 2021, succeeding Pushkaryov. Additionally, Igor Babynin, the former head of Vladivostok's funeral service, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for bribery at the end of 2023, will also go to the war.

Andrey Fedotov, the former Minister of Labor of the Zabaykalsky region [Russia's federal subject], who was sentenced to five years of imprisonment for embezzling funds designated for the repair of a psychiatric hospital, has also been spotted in the combat zone. A video of Fedotov in military uniform was published by Sergey Bazarov, an assistant of the Zabaykalsky region governor. In 2021, while serving as a hospital chief physician, Fedotov received a suspended sentence for bribery.

Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers

The list of mobilized soldiers killed in the war has been updated to include Aleksandr Bazhin from the Perm region [Russia's federal subject], Aleksandr Filkov and Mikhail Shmotyev from the Sverdlovsk region, Darkhan Tuyaliev from the Astrakhan region, as well as Andrey Groshev from the Zabaykalsky region.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced that a new 95-for-95 POW exchange had been carried out with Ukraine. According to the Telegram channel Nash Vykhod [Our Way Out], the prisoners of war Russia brought home were mostly young conscripts captured in the Kursk region. One of them is Danil Kolesnikov from the Belgorod region, who was deployed to the Russia-Ukraine border and captured during Ukraine’s incursion just three months after starting his conscription term. Three other returned conscripts are from the Kursk region: 21-year-old Ivan Balamutov from the town of Sudzha, 23-year-old Roman Boyko from the village of Korenevo and 20-year-old Denis Leonov from Kursk. Also among the released POWs were four fighters from the Chechen Akhmat battalion. The countries also exchanged the bodies of fallen soldiers, with 501 bodies received by Ukraine and 89 by Russia. In total, as a result of the recent swaps, Russia received over 300 young servicemen who might be conscripts, the independent media outlet Agentstvo [Agency] estimates.

According to the Vot Tak [Like This] media outlet, medical facilities of the MoD in Saint Petersburg, designed to accommodate 7,500 patients, are struggling to cope with the influx of wounded soldiers. As a result, war participants are being treated in at least two civilian hospitals. Plans to involve the civilian healthcare system in treating combat participants were announced back in July 2023. To accommodate this, hospitals have increased their procurement by one-third.

A mother from the city of Yekaterinburg has been searching for her 19-year-old son, a conscript who has been missing in action during his service in the Kursk region for a month. Maksim Ivannikov was drafted into the army in the fall of 2023. Two months before his scheduled demobilization, he informed his parents that he was being sent to Kursk and then stopped communicating. Initially, officials at the draft office and his military unit told the mother to "wait," but on Oct. 8, she was officially notified that her son was missing in action, and a DNA sample was taken from her. Since then, there has been no further contact. The mother has appealed to Sverdlovsk human-rights ombudsman Tatyana Merzlyakova for help in getting Ivannikov included in the exchange lists.

Andrey Somov, a soldier from the Sverdlovsk region who suffered a concussion and developed a mental illness, has been sent back to war. Somov signed a contract in May 2023, and by August, he had sustained a concussion near the town of Avdiivka and had been undergoing treatment ever since. According to his parents, he even attempted suicide and was hospitalized in psychiatric hospitals three times. Despite being assigned a service fitness category "D" (unfit for military service), Somov was not demobilized and was sent back to a combat zone near the city of Donetsk in the fall. He has been out of contact for a week. His parents have filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office and insist that their son should be receiving treatment.

In the city of Ryazan, the widow of 44-year-old private Fyodor Bulgakov is unable to receive death gratuity payment. Bulgakov was killed in the early hours of Aug. 9 in the Kursk region. The Ryazan region's Department of Social Protection stated that the one-time monetary payment is only available to those who were killed or wounded in the "Donetsk People's Republic, Luhansk People's Republic, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and Ukraine." Since the Kursk region is not on this list, Bulgakov's relatives are not eligible for compensation. The widow has appealed to the region's governor Pavel Malkov. Following the news, Ryazan authorities expressed "regret over the situation" and are reportedly preparing changes to regional regulations to begin providing payments to the families of soldiers who were killed in the Kursk region. A similar issue had previously been encountered by a mother of multiple children from Yekaterinburg, whose husband was also killed in the Kursk region.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

In the village of Zaprudnya, near Moscow, a 51-year-old veteran of the war in Ukraine stabbed his neighbor to death after an argument about loud music. The veteran had been playing his music loudly, and when the neighbor scolded him for it, the two men went outside to "talk." During this confrontation, the ex-soldier stabbed the neighbor, who died at the scene. The suspect has been arrested, but his name remains unknown. The man returned from the front in September 2023, was in treatment for alcohol use disorder and was charged with an unspecified misdemeanor.

A 23-year-old resident of the village of Kyrgyz-Miyaki in Bashkortostan [Russia's constituent republic], who killed three people, has returned from the war and is now reportedly terrorizing local youth. In February 2023, the young man, whose name has not been disclosed, ambushed his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend with a hammer and an ax. After killing the couple, he caused a car accident on a nearby road, resulting in the death of another driver. In March 2024, he was sentenced to 20 years in a maximum security penal colony. However, shortly after his imprisonment, he went to fight in Ukraine. He was injured a few months later, demobilized and sent back home. The relatives of the murdered girl and her boyfriend claim they never received any compensation from the killer.

The Second Western District Military Court has sentenced a man detained in the Belgorod region, to 16 years in prison on charges of high treason, participation in a terrorist organization, sabotage and illegal possession of explosive devices. According to the FSB, the man was planning to blow up a "railway infrastructure facility."

Children and Educational System

In the Rostov region, preschoolers from the Raduga kindergarten were inducted into the Young Army [pro-Kremlin youth organization] at a military base and met with participants in the "special military operation." During the event, the children were given a miniature replica of the destroyed town of Bakhmut as a gift.

Assistance

In Primorye, war participants and their families have been exempted from property taxes. The benefit applies to real estate owned by military personnel from the region, retroactive to 2022.

Miscellaneous

In Bashkortostan, 35 participants in the invasion of Ukraine have become municipal deputies. Meanwhile, in the Leningrad region, Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko signed a decree allowing combat participants to assume leadership positions in government agencies, enterprises and organizations.

Longreads

Meduza [international Russian-language online media outlet] reviewed a set of documents from the national budget draft for 2025-2027. The review reveals how much Russia will spend on the war and the reconstruction of occupied territories, the expected revenue from tax reforms and the costs of maintaining the presidential administration and propagandists.