Mobilization in Russia for Oct. 22-24, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
The Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] Telegram channel explains the process recently defined by the Ministry of Defense and the Supreme Court’s Judicial Department for mobilizing defendants charged with criminal offenses. When the authorities mobilize defendants held in pre-trial detention centers, they conduct a medical examination based on a court order. The court then immediately decides to either suspend the criminal case or reject the mobilization. This decision takes immediate effect and obliges the facility's administration to transfer the mobilized individual to a draft office and record the handover. If no pre-trial restrictions have been ordered, the authorities do not need to involve courts for mobilization. The same rule applies to selecting candidates for contract military service: if the authorities impose restrictions, interactions with potential contract soldiers require a court decision.
The speaker of the Moscow Regional Legislative Assembly stated that over 27,000 individuals visited the regional military recruitment center over the past 18 months, with 25,517 applying for contracts. Allegedly, 10,000 of them were residents of other Russian regions, as well as citizens of Cuba, Germany, Nepal, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
In Russia's constituent republic of Bashkortostan, the Recruit program pays 50,000 rubles [$520] for each referral of a new contract soldier. According to the Gorobzor news portal, citing the regional chapter of DOSAAF [Russian Army, Air Force, and Navy Volunteer Society], authorities have received 1,619 applications and have made payments for 1,040 of them. The program will run until Oct. 31. Those who enlist are entitled to a 1.3 million ruble [$13,500] sign-up bonus.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, reported that a second official has joined the BARS-Belgorod volunteer unit—head of one of the region’s largest temporary accommodation centers, which currently houses over 300 people. Previously, Galina Rudenko, the head of the Krasnogvardeysky district, also joined the unit, prompting Gladkov to voice concerns about a shortage of civil servants in the region due to their joining the war effort. Meanwhile, a resident of the city of Stary Oskol was rejected from the battalion on the grounds that women are not accepted there. At the same time, the Fonar Belgorod media outlet claims that 46 women have joined the region’s territorial defense forces.
The Ministry of Defense announced that personnel from the BARS-Kursk volunteer unit have started carrying out tasks in the Kursk region. On Oct. 24, the Bryansk Regional Duma [regional assembly] passed legislation for a sign-up bonus of 300,000 rubles [$3,120] for a one-year contract with the BARS-Bryansk volunteer unit. Those signing six-month contracts will receive half that amount. If a participant terminates the contract early, they will be required to return the full bonus. The volunteers will "guard critical infrastructure and essential facilities" and assist residents "during evacuations." They are assured they will not be deployed outside the Bryansk region.
The head of the armored vehicle service in the technical support division of the Southern Military District, Colonel Aleksandr Denisov, who faces embezzlement charges, announced his intention to go to war in Ukraine before the sentencing in his criminal case. However, due to errors in his application, the trial was postponed. According to investigators, the officer misappropriated tank engines valued at 5.5 million rubles [$57,100] between 2021 and 2022. The former military commissar of the town of Ozersk, Vladimir Pichugin, who was sentenced to 10 years in a penal colony for bribery, has also gone to the frontline.
In the Tomsk region, the criminal case against a murderer who dismembered the victim's body has been suspended five days after the report of his detention, as the criminal was deployed to the war. In total, 19 criminal cases have been suspended in the Tomsk region since the beginning of 2024 due to the suspects being sent to the frontline.
A resident of the town of Surovikino in the Volgograd region has been stripped of his acquired Russian citizenship for failing to comply with the mandatory military registration requirements. Previously, another resident of the region, Islamjon, 33, was similarly deprived of his citizenship. In total, based on the information presented in today's reports and the calculations of Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet], it can be concluded that at least 13 Russians have lost their acquired citizenship.
Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers
The list of mobilized soldiers killed in the war has been updated to include Andrey Azanov from the Perm region [Russia’s federal subject], Ilya Dolgachyov, Valentin Zhdanov and Denis Boyarskikh from the Sverdlovsk region, Aleksandr Leonov and Sergey Gladchenko from the Rostov region, Vladislav Kuptsov from the Krasnodar region, Basang Dzhivinov from Russia’s constituent Republic of Kalmykia, Dmitry Zlobov from the Bryansk region, Vladimir Rebrov from the Leningrad region, Ivan Lomako from the Arkhangelsk region, Islam Abdulbariev from Russia’s constituent Republic of Dagestan, Igor Kasyanov from the Moscow region, Ivan Obraztsov from the Tver region, Ivan Ponkin from the Murmansk region, Dmitry Palamar from the Belgorod region, Maksim Yeryomin from the Oryol region, Artyom Tarasov and Aleksandr Orekhov from Russia’s constituent Republic of Chuvashia, Kirill Zlygostyev from Russia's constituent Republic of Buryatia, Eduard Vulfert from the Omsk region and Ivan Novopashin from the Tyumen region.
A Rostov region family of six has lost all its men in the war with Ukraine. Andrey Zinkov, 19, was the first to sign a contract and head to the war in 2022 only to be killed at the end of that same year. His father Yury Zinkov followed and was killed a year later. In August 2024, Aleksandr Zinkov, the only remaining son, went to the war and was killed on Oct. 19.
News has emerged of at least seven additional conscripts who received payments from the Ministry of Defense under contracts they did not sign. Kirill Vyunov, 20, and six of his fellow conscripts serving in the 232nd Rocket Artillery Brigade in the Kurgan region each saw 405,000 rubles [$4,210] deposited to their accounts by the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Services of the Republic of Tatarstan. Quoting the conscripts themselves, the Okno project reports that the young men did not sign any documents. The soldiers said they were not allowed to leave their unit. Earlier, at least ten conscripts from the Chelyabinsk region serving in the 90th Guards Tank Division in Chebarkul encountered a similar situation. The Mozhem Ob’yasnit [We can explain] Telegram channel compiled all cases known to date where conscripts found themselves under contracts that they never signed. Aleksey Tabalov, the head of Shkola Prizyvnika [Conscript School, a human rights organization], postulates that this could become a new method of recruiting contract soldiers. Andrey Kartapolov, Chairman of the Defense Committee of the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia], blamed a "technical glitch" for the payments the Defense Ministry made to some conscripts under unsigned contracts.
Ex-convicts on the run who signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense have described the punishments inflicted on their fellow soldiers for failing to complete missions. According to them, after one of the assaults, the deputy commander of the 109th Regiment lined up 15 survivors who had returned from the mission. He accused them of failing to complete the mission, after which they were placed in a basement. The men were not fed and were given minimal water. As a result, three wounded men died. The remaining soldiers, without weapons or body armor, were sent on an assault in which they were all killed. Officially, they are listed as having gone AWOL.
Following the publicity surrounding the soldiers assigned to the 123rd Motorized Rifle Brigade, the Astra Telegram channel has received inquiries from relatives of ex-convicts who were also assigned to this unit and went missing in action during combat missions. Commanders stated that it was impossible to determine their whereabouts or evacuate them. Reports indicate that out of the 108 ex-convicts sent there from the Volgograd region, 103 have already gone missing. They went missing in action on their very first mission.
Denis M., a contract soldier from the 331st Airborne Regiment from Kostroma, has alleged that his commanders are extorting 6 million rubles [$62,300] from him which he received as compensation for his injuries "for the needs of the unit." The soldier was assaulted and hung upside down. It is known that he has already spent at least 146,000 rubles [$1,520] on "squad needs."
The wife of a mobilized soldier shared that her husband, who had suffered four concussions in the war, was declared temporarily unfit for military service for a month. The man appealed to an independent military medical board, which found him partially fit for military service, which could have allowed him to be discharged. However, instead of being demobilized, he was charged with going AWOL. The man was arrested.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
A serviceman from Kalmykia, Aleksandr S., 41, attempted suicide in the occupied town of Shakhtarsk in the Donetsk region. For reasons still unknown, he stabbed himself in the neck.
Russian soldiers got into a knife fight in occupied Bakhmut, injuring a volunteer fighter of the "Wolves PMC," Andrey Vikorst. He was cut by another Russian soldier, platoon commander Aleksey Ryzhkov. Vikorst is currently in the hospital.
In the Kemerovo region, a participant in the war with Ukraine assaulted the mother of three children and then forced her to write a suicide note. The suspect had been sentenced in 2021 to 22 years in a maximum security penal colony for the brutal murder of his former partner. He later signed a contract and went to war, where he served for three months before spending another three months in a hospital recovering from injuries. A local resident reported that the man had been released from custody.
The Kazakh outlet BES.Media uncovered a ruling by the Priozersk City Court in the Karaganda region, according to which a Russian deserter Kamil Kasimov admitted his guilt during an administrative hearing on charges of evading departure from the country and personally requested to be deported from Kazakhstan. Kasimov's lawyer, Artur Alkhastov, believes the deserter may have been pressured. Earlier, Kasimov had been detained by Russian and Kazakh police and then transferred to Russia. He was sentenced to six years in a penal colony on charges of desertion.
According to the Baza Telegram channel, on Sept. 18 in the Irkutsk region, three teenagers were detained for attempting to set fire to two TU-22M bombers. Investigators allege that Tamerlan Kh., 17, Zakhar Sh., 15, and Ivan N., 17, had planned to infiltrate a military airfield in the Usolsky district and ignite the aircraft. The teenagers are currently being held in a pre-trial detention center and face up to 20 years in prison on charges of committing an act of terror.
In Perm, on Oct. 24, two women set fire to the office of the United Russia [Putin's ruling party]. They first smashed the windows, then, recording the incident on their phone, threw several Molotov cocktails inside, causing a fire. The arsonists fled the scene but were arrested later that same day. The suspects were a mother, 54, and her daughter, 20, from the village of Gainy. No one was injured in the fire. Vyacheslav Grigoryev, a representative of the Perm branch of United Russia, linked the incident to a large shipment of "humanitarian aid" sent from the office to the war zone two days earlier.
In the early hours of Oct. 23, two relay cabinets caught fire on the railway section between Krasnoye Selo and Gorelovo stations in the Leningrad region. Russian Railways [the state-owned railway company] stated that the incident did not affect train traffic. On the morning of Oct. 24, another relay cabinet was set on fire between Strelna and Ligovo stations, causing delays in commuter train service on the Baltic route.
In Krasnoyarsk, three residents, two of whom are minors, were convicted of sabotage on the railway. The court sentenced the minors to six years in a juvenile penal colony, while the third defendant received six and a half years in a penal colony. All three were found guilty of sabotage committed in a group in conspiracy. According to the prosecution, in July 2023, they allegedly set fire to relay and battery cabinets on a railway section between the Sharypovo and Shush stations. The young people were arrested a few days later.
In Magadan, four local residents were sentenced to prison for failing to report acquaintances who allegedly planned to set fire to the city's draft office. They were convicted under charges of failing to report a terrorist attack. According to the prosecution, the case involves four acquaintances of Ekaterina Gazieva and Sergey Malyuchenko. One of them was sentenced to three years and three months in a penal colony, another to two years and ten months in a maximum security penal colony, a third one to eighteen months in a maximum security penal colony, and the fourth to four months of forced labor. The surnames of two of the convicted individuals are known: Zinoviev and Sushkevich. Previously, the court sentenced Gazieva and Malyuchenko to 12.5 and 13 years in a penal colony, respectively. Additionally, two men who were aware of the planned arson were also sentenced.
In Yekaterinburg, leaflets have appeared on buses urging people not to set fire to relay cabinets, not to justify terrorism, and outlining the punishments for such actions.
A pawnshop employee from Orsk is on trial for preparing a terrorist attack. According to investigators, in April 2023, Aleksey Grigoryev contacted the Ukrainian project Hochu Zhit [I Want to Live], after which he began posting flyers with its symbols. In May 2023, Grigoryev filled out an application to join the Freedom of Russia Legion. He also planned to set fire to a relay cabinet near Novotroitsk in the Orenburg region to disrupt the supply of military vehicles but ultimately abandoned the plan.
A resident of Komsomolsk-on-Amur was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison for "espionage in favor of Ukraine." According to investigators, he intended to pass information about the operations of a local defense enterprise to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate.
A Ukrainian citizen, Grigory Sinchenko, a person with a third-degree disability, is being tortured and denied medical care in pre-trial detention center No. 2 in Taganrog. He is accused of espionage, sabotage, and other crimes allegedly committed in the "DPR" from 2016 to 2019.
According to the OVD-Info independent human rights project, 1,076 people have already become defendants in anti-war criminal cases. In 2024 alone, 217 individuals were prosecuted for their anti-war stance.
Two wives of mobilized soldiers, Angela Inyusheva from Tatarstan and Moscow resident Viktoria Kalina, were fined 15,000 rubles [$160] for protesting near the Ministry of Defense building in Moscow. They were found guilty of violating rally regulations. The women are being prosecuted for the Sept. 21 protest at the Ministry of Defense in Moscow. Both denied guilt and disagreed with the court’s decision. Earlier, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court in Moscow fined Maria Turova and Maria Semyonova, the wife and sister of mobilized soldiers, 10,000 rubles [$100] each on similar charges for their participation in the same protest.
A worker at a military factory in Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk region, was fined 30,000 rubles [$310] for discrediting the Russian Armed Forces after tearing down posters promoting contract-based military service.