Mobilization in Russia for Oct. 21-23, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
Russia’s Ministry of Defense plans to deploy reservists to protect civilian infrastructure from drone attacks deep inside the country’s territory. This is the explanation offered (1, 2) during a briefing on the federal bill that would allow the use of personnel from the mobilization reserve for defense tasks during peacetime and without declaring mobilization. According to Vice Admiral Vladimir Tsimlyansky, Deputy Head of the Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate of the General Staff, the Ministry of Defense would send reservists to special "training courses" to guard energy, transport, and oil refining facilities, as well as other life-support infrastructure, if a corresponding presidential decree were issued. Tsimlyansky asserts that reservists would not participate in the "special military operation" but would exclusively protect critical and other life-support facilities, remaining only within their home region. Separate contract clauses would reportedly confirm this. However, the version of the bill previously approved by the government’s legislative commission left open the possibility of sending reservists outside Russia.
Russia’s Supreme Court clarified that creditors must write off the debt of families of soldiers killed in the war against Ukraine, even for loans secured before the start of the "special military operation." This clarification followed the case of Viktoria Golovina, the widow of a war participant, from whom collectors sought to recover 500,000 rubles [$6,130]. Lower courts had previously sided with the collectors, ruling that debt write-offs did not apply to contracts signed before February 2022. The Supreme Court, however, overturned those decisions and denied the collectors' claims. The new ruling specifies that a servicemember's death in combat operations terminates their family members' obligations on any loans taken out before the day of mobilization, contract signing, or the start of their participation in the war. A 2022 law established the right of war participants to postpone repayments, while a provision that took effect in 2024 mandated the write-off of debts up to 10 million rubles [$122,500].
Army Recruitment
In the town of Cherdyn in the Perm region (population around 4,900), local authorities have raised the payment for helping to recruit volunteer fighters for the war—from the previously set 50,000 rubles [$610] for a recruit from the Perm region and 100,000 rubles [$1,220] for one from another region, to 200,000 rubles [$2,450] regardless of origin. In another Perm region town, Chaykovsky (population 75,000), a similar recruitment bonus of 100,000 rubles [$1,230] has been introduced. Contract soldiers themselves in the region are eligible for a sign-up payment of 1.5 million rubles [$18,400].
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
The Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] Telegram channel reports, citing recently published data from the Judicial Department under Russia’s Supreme Court, that in the first half of 2025, a total of 6,181 conscripts and contract soldiers were convicted (compared to 6,087 during the same period in 2024). Among them, 274 were convicted of violent crimes, 103 for bribery, 55 for accepting bribes, 31 for armed robbery, 40 for robbery, and 202 for theft.
As previously reported, active military personnel are most often prosecuted for military offenses—with 4,125 such convictions over the past six months. Of the total number of convicted servicemen, 2,812 received real prison sentences, 1,238 were given suspended sentences, and 59 conscripts and contract soldiers were sentenced to non-custodial punishments.
The Blagoveshchensk Garrison Military Court found a serviceman who attacked a 16-year-old schoolgirl with a metal bat legally insane and ordered him to undergo compulsory psychiatric treatment. A criminal case had originally been opened on charges of attempted murder. In May 2025, in the city of Blagoveshchensk, the serviceman struck the girl on the head as she was on her way to school and then fled the scene. The victim was sent to a hospital, and the attacker was detained a few hours later. It was subsequently revealed that just a few days earlier, he had already attacked another passerby. According to expert findings, the man has long suffered from a chronic mental disorder.
The Chelyabinsk Garrison Military Court sentenced war participant Sergey Vikharev to three and a half years in a penal colony on charges of hooliganism involving a weapon and illegal possession of firearms. According to the court, during his service, Vikharev took an AK-74 assault rifle and a magazine with 37 rounds from the front and brought them to the Chelyabinsk region, where he hid them near his home. Later, after arguing with patrons at a bar, he pulled out the rifle and fired the entire magazine into the air, frightening local residents. He then sawed the weapon into 13 pieces and hid them again in a cache.
Authorities in the Belgorod region have opened a criminal case against three local residents on charges of large-scale fraud, extortion, and kidnapping with violence committed by an organized group. According to the outlet Fonar, the suspects are reportedly 34-year-old brothers Aleksandr and Sergey Osychenko and their 55-year-old acquaintance, Rati Rafayelyan. Investigators allege that in June of this year, the men kidnapped a participant in the invasion of Ukraine, took him by force into a forest, and beat him "under the pretext of a supposed debt." They then allegedly coerced the victim into handing over his bank and SIM cards, withdrawing more than one million rubles from his accounts.
The Southern District Military Court sentenced 32-year-old Ukrainian serviceman Igor Potapov, a member of the Azov Brigade, to 28 years in a maximum-security penal colony on charges of receiving terrorist training and participating in a terrorist organization. According to investigators, Potapov joined the Azov Brigade in 2020, underwent military training, and took part in combat operations against Russian forces before being captured in the spring of 2022. In August 2025, his name was added to the Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service’s (Rosfinmonitoring) registry of "terrorists and extremists."
In Russia's constituent Republic of Buryatia, two minors have been sent to a pre-trial detention facility on charges of committing sabotage in a group in conspiracy. The Federal Security Service (FSB) alleges that the young individuals contacted an unknown person via a messaging app who offered them 11,000 rubles [$130] to disable a cellular communication station. The teenagers agreed and damaged the equipment, sending a video to the client and reportedly receiving 2,000 rubles [$25] in return. Their ages and names have not been disclosed.
In Russia's constituent Rrepublic of Karelia, a local resident has been detained on suspicion of aiding sabotage activities. According to the FSB, the man allegedly received instructions from a Ukrainian handler to gather information on the locations of Russian Armed Forces, and began his reconnaissance on a railway bridge. The man has been sent to a pre-trial detention center, but his name and other details remain undisclosed.
A minor, Dmitry K., from the Orenburg region, has been sentenced to seven years and three months in a juvenile correctional facility on sabotage charges. According to his relatives, in May 2024 an unknown individual messaged the then-16-year-old and offered him money to commit arson. Dmitry refused. However, two months later, when a friend asked him about part-time work, Dmitry forwarded the original message, which included the coordinates of cell phone towers and the sender's contact information. In July, that friend and another person set fire to one of the towers and were paid $250. Dmitry requested 3–4 thousand rubles [$49] finder's fee but was detained before receiving the money. His two accomplices were also arrested and charged with sabotage; one was sentenced to six and a half years in a juvenile facility, and the other received 14 years in prison. According to investigators, Dmitry was guilty of coordinating the actions of his acquaintances, entering a criminal conspiracy with an "unidentified person," and recruiting perpetrators for acts of sabotage for money.
A 47-year-old lawyer from Udmurtia [Russia's constituent republic], Vladislav Radchenko, has been detained on charges of participating in the activities of a terrorist organization. According to investigators, Radchenko proactively established contact with the Ukrainian side and passed information regarding the activities of local law enforcement and the Russian Defense Ministry in the region. Radchenko, who previously served as the Deputy Prosecutor of the Balezin district, was granted his lawyer status in May 2025. He is currently being held in custody.
In Saint Petersburg 29-year-old psychologist and blogger Diana Chystiakova who works with autistic individuals and writes a column for the Anton Tut Ryadom [Anton’s Right Here] Foundation website—was detained on charges of attempting a terrorist attack. According to investigators, the young woman fell victim to fraudsters who extorted one million rubles from her and persuaded her to commit arson. On the evening of Oct. 22, she approached the area where a regiment responsible for the security and escort of detainees is stationed, carrying three bottles filled with an incendiary mixture. Two of them failed to ignite when thrown, while one Molotov cocktail caught fire on the asphalt near a service vehicle. After the throw, Chystiakova was detained. No one was injured.
The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced 21-year-old Yana Suvorova, the administrator of the Melitopol tse Ukraina [Melitopol Is Ukraine] Telegram channel, to 14 years in a penal colony on charges of committing a terrorist act causing significant damage as part of a group, espionage, and participation in a terrorist organization. Suvorova was detained on Aug. 20, 2023, during a mass roundup of journalists and bloggers whom Russian law enforcement linked to several local Telegram channels. According to the FSB, this network of pro-Ukrainian media outlets allegedly served "to gather intelligence and exert psychological influence on the region’s residents." Suvorova and her colleagues were accused, in particular, of directing a HIMARS missile strike at the building of a Melitopol college that housed offices of the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia) and the FSB. On March 27, 2023, the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck the college. According to Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet], no one inside the building was injured. Suvorova was first held in the occupied city of Mariupol, and later transferred to Taganrog’s Detention Center No. 2, considered one of Russia’s harshest and most notorious prisons where torture is reported. In early September, the Rostov court sentenced another Melitopol Is Ukraine Telegram channel’s administrator, 27-year-old Vladyslav Gershon, to 15 years in prison. Around the same time, the Zaporizhzhia Regional Court in occupied Melitopol sentenced the administrator of RIA-Melitopol Telegram channel, Heorhii Levchenko, to 16 years in a high-security penal colony.
The FSB has detained a Russian citizen in the Amur region on charges of treason, participation in an extremist organization, and financing extremism. According to investigators, the man was recruited through Telegram and subsequently provided Ukraine’s intelligence services with information about the movement of military equipment along the Trans-Siberian Railway toward the area of the "special military operation."
In the Saratov region, a regional court sentenced 27-year-old local resident Andrey Shurygin to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of treason. According to investigators, between January and May 2025, Shurygin established contact with representatives of Ukraine’s intelligence services and passed them information about Russian servicemen and military facilities, including details concerning Russia’s "strategic infrastructure sites." He also allegedly carried out assignments to verify the home addresses of military personnel and "recruited others to assist him."
In the Krasnoyarsk region, Yaroslav Havryliv, a resident of the town of Kansk born in 1990, was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of treason. Details of the case remain unknown; the verdict was handed down on Oct. 16.
In the Krasnodar region, a court sentenced Ernest Sharafutdinov, a native of Bashkortostan, to 13 years in a penal colony on charges of treason. Investigators say that in March 2024 Sharafutdinov contacted Ukrainian intelligence and agreed to cooperate. According to the case, Ukrainian operatives instructed him to carry out acts of sabotage in Russia's constituent republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, but he refused to fulfill the assignments. Still, prosecutors contend that he passed along "relevant and reliable information" about the locations of industrial facilities.
In the Kaliningrad region, two Ukrainian citizens, ages 43 and 27, were sentenced to 16 and 15 years in a penal colony, respectively, on charges of espionage, illegal border crossing and attempted kidnapping of a minor. Prosecutors said that in 2022 and 2023 the defendants gathered intelligence about security systems along the Russian-Lithuanian border to plan an illegal crossing. In December 2023 they allegedly tried to cross the border but were detained by the FSB. The agency claims the men also planned to kidnap a child born in 2018, who was living with his mother in the Kaliningrad region, and take him to Lithuania, a mission for which the child’s grandmother had reportedly promised them 40,000 euros. The names of the convicted men were not disclosed.
Children and Militarization
New school textbooks on Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland now include detailed instructions on how to enlist under a contract. In a section about the Russian Armed Forces, students learn how the military is organized and why it's necessary to "defend the Fatherland." The textbook outlines "10 steps for enlistment in contract military service" and lists benefits for service members and their families. Another chapter states that military training can begin right after high school and reminds students of criminal liability for draft evasion.
The Idel.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet reported on how small villages in Tatarstan are losing men to the war.
The Sibir.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet published the story of Semyon Karmanov, who became disabled as a child due to intellectual developmental delays, was sent to a penal colony in 2023, and then enlisted from there to fight in the war, where he was killed.
The Vyorstka media outlet writes about how single fathers are being denied discharge from the Russian army and sent to a combat zone.