Volunteer summary on mobilization in the Russian Federation for October 21–22
The Russian Prime MInister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree establishing deferral of tax and insurance payments for the mobilized. The deferral will be in effect not only for the entire period of military service but also for several months after discharge. Also, the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Labor and Social Security informed that relatives and friends of the mobilized can repay the credit and tax obligations owed by the mobilized.
The St. Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov visited a military unit in Leningrad Region where mobilized soldiers and volunteers are undergoing training. The governor of Chelyabinsk Region Alexei Teksler inspected for readiness a campsite set up within the territory of the 90th Tank Division stationed near the city of Chebarkul. The first mobilized will come there tomorrow. The camp will be a destination not only for the servicemen coming from the Chelyabinsk Region but also from other places in Russia.
According to Sota Telegram channel, the Moscow Metro can significantly increase time-intervals of trains to 5 minutes and more. This is due to the mass mobilization of train drivers. And in Voronezh, 62 public minibus drivers were drafted, which is about 3% of the driver's staff.
The Altai Republic, which had not previously drafted its citizens, finally started to send them to war. In Novosibirsk, dispatches of mobilized men are continuing for the second day. Yesterday the governor, deputies and an orchestra and today the mayor came to see off the first trains of mobilized soldiers. In the Kursk region in the Zheleznogorsk district, as well as in the Kastorenskiy, Gorshechenskiy and Sovetskiy districts, the mobilized men were taken to a training unit. Forty eight mobilized men were additionally sent from Surgut to training units. Mobilized men are taken out nightly by busfuls from the Novosibirsk Higher Military Command School.
In one of our summaries we told about a group of the mobilized from Moscow and the Moscow region, who had complained that they had been about to be sent to the battlefront without training and required equipment. The “Ostorozhno, novosti” Telegram channel (“Watch out, news”) shared their further fate. The mobilized were sent to the so-called LPR several days after the first video had been published. There they came under fire, some of them were killed and the rest retreated on foott, afterwards they were threatened with criminal charges.
Circa 20 mobilized from the Lipetsk and Bryansk regions are forcibly held in cellars at the territory of the so-called LPR because of their refusal to proceed to the frontline without training. “They … haven’t received any training, virtually at once they were deployed at the frontline. There they came under mortar shelling, after which they turned back to the military base in the Luhansk region and found out that their personal belongings had been stolen. Then there was another order to proceed to the frontline, but they refused. Afterwards the men were disarmed and taken to a cellar”, — a friend of one of the mobilized told the ASTRA Telegram channel.
Pro-Kremlin “war correspondent” Anastasia Kashevarova claims that some “well-known general” forced a lieutenant, by threatening with weapons, to get the retreating mobilized soldiers back to the battlefront.
The Asians of Russia Telegram channel, with reference to the New Tuva movement, publishes a video recording and translation of a conversation between one of the Tuvan mobilized and a representative of the local administration.
In the Penza region, the mobilized recorded a video review of the uniforms issued to them. The soldiers are disappointed with the quality of the equipment.
In Moscow’s district of Rostokino, State Budgetary Institution "Zhilischnik" employees attach "draft evaders" search notices to building entrances, where evaders are being referred to as "unethical citizens." Margarita Simonyan stated she has handed over the lists of Sochi "alimony dodgers" to the military enlistment office. As a result, everyone was mobilized without consideration. According to her, now the alimony dodgers "will repay the debt not only to their children, but also to their homeland."
A St. Petersburg citizen with poor eyesight was mobilized without being allowed to take his glasses from home. At the military enlistment office, he was told he would be a driver at the front - in spite of the fact he had a different military specialty, and had not been driving for five years.
Another mobilized father of three is facing difficulties averting mobilization, as reported by Pavel Chikov.
Novaya Gazeta.Europe shares details of the situation with the Moscow mobilized, where a draft officer attempted to change their military specialty from marine to infantry. This incident was mentioned in yesterday’s brief. Sota also publishes a video filmed at the Tsaritsyno recruiting office.
Announcements are posted in Kostroma public transport about a campaign to scrape together "warm parcels" for the participants of the "SVO" [EN: special military operation], including for the mobilized. A Mglin (Bryansk region) local newspaper published a memo for citizens on collecting things for the mobilized.
Employees of the Kirishskaya State District Power Plant located in the Leningrad region volunteered to fundraise for materials and tailor sleeping bags for soldiers. In the Resource center of Nizhneilimsky district of the Irkutsk region, salaries are partially withheld for the mobilized. “Vladimirsky Standard” factory gave the mobilized a sausage stick. This was announced by the head of the Raduzhny town, where the meat factory is located.
On the 21st of October, all Taganrog's high school students received a memo, describing the reasons behind the on-going mobilization. The memo is telling the students that "the decision was made out of the need to protect their kin folk from the DPR and the LPR". But the numbers in the memo don't exactly stack up. However, the head of the Taganrog's local government, Mihail Solonitsyn, said that no one has ever handed out memos like this.
Vladimir's governor, Aleksandr Avdeev, canceled his own order to ban alcohol sales near conscription offices, which his office had introduced just two weeks ago, after a string of news articles in the local media had described drunken conduct of the new draftees. Belgorod's new draftees will only be issued timber logs for the trenches at the (Russian) Defense Ministry request. Local authorities are afraid that the logs will end up in enemy's hands. As was articulated by the deputy governor of the Belgorod region, Yuliya Schedrina. "There is not enough timber stock in the Belgorod region, she said, but the need for it in the dugout and trench construction and heating is increasing by the day".
The filing of a draft evasion case by the Penza authorities was ruled unlawful, therefore Penza's head of the Russian Investigative Committee was charged with professional misconduct.
In Krasnoyarsk, activist Maria Samorodskaya went to a picket against mobilization with a placard "No country without men." She was detained. Two residents of Bashkiria were prosecuted for setting fire to enlistment offices. The 39-year-old villager from Isyangulovo, according to the Federal Security Service (FSB), tried to set a military enlistment office on fire on September 26. The 18-year-old first-year student of the agricultural university allegedly broke a window in the building of the local administration in Arkhangelskoye village and set fire to a military registry desk on October 8..
Avito advertisements website blocks ads of legal assistance to avoid mobilization. On every complaint received, their support service refers to some update of the rules that has not yet been put into effect.
Mediazona (Russian independent media) published the story of an IT specialist who did not go to the military enlistment office, did not flee from Russia, but went to hide from mobilization in the woods. For a month now, he’s been living in a thicket. He also runs a Telegram channel about his life (he writes there about harvesting firewood, gathering water, making an office in a tent on the edge of the forest with an antenna on a pine tree for Internet access).