mobilization briefs
October 28, 2022

Russian mobilization news update by CIT volunteers, October 26-27

The Russian Parliament signed off on several mobilization-related laws. As of now criminal offenders, convicted of serious crimes, who haven’t had their conviction annulled, can be conscripted. The Parliament also signed off on an alternative army service option law. On top of that, they signed off on a law that would cover various volunteer formations assisting the Russian Armed Forces. Said formations would include volunteer militias that could be used to reach some defense related objectives.

So, when will the "partial" mobilization end in Russia's provinces? Each region's governor has a different answer to this question. Pskov's head of administration, Mihail Vedyornikov, says his region has just about met all "partial" mobilization quotas, and "only a few dozen more residents need to be drafted". Tomsk's governor, Vladimir Mazur, stated that "in the Tomsk region ‘partial’ mobilization process isn't over yet and the final numbers for the ‘special military operation’ call up will be announced in November, during the next sitting of the Region's Parliament. The governor of Nizhny Novgorod, Gleb Nikitin, answered this question like this: "we shall follow orders from the Ministry of Defense, as per the President's decree. As soon as we are told that no more people need to be drafted, we will stop conscripting. The Ministry's plan changes, depending on how quickly the new army units are put together. The plan is being altered all the time."

The Head of Bashkortostan, Radii Habirov, said that all Bashkortostan's mobilization quotas have been met. He also added that around 200 fathers of multiple children (three, four or more) have been returned home. They were replaced by others. An earlier statement by the acting head of the social provisions department for the local conscription office, Aleksandr Truman, mentioned that those fathers who have already been shipped off to fight in Ukraine unfortunately cannot be called off.

Kemerovo Regional Governor, Sergei Tsivilev, is not likely to end the draft any time soon. Moreover, he made a decision to create a conscription training center in his region. "We have created the center; we have formed the structure and now we are starting the training process on the territory of Kuzbass. That way we not only take care of the gear provision for the boys who have already left, but also making sure the new draftees are ready for the important social task at hand" said Tsivilev.

In the Volgograd Region, the “partial” mobilization still continues despite the quota being filled already on October 20.

Draft offices in the Leningrad Region will update their database by mining into personal data stored by other federal agencies. The military commissariats will gain access to databases kept by the Medical Insurance Fund and the police which will allow them to obtain current information on people’s employment, place of residence, and marital status.

The governor of Tomsk Region Vladimir Mazur informed that the eligibility to receive a 100 thousand ruble lump sum payment from the regional budget had been extended to volunteers and servicemen from the Ministry of Defense and the Russian National Guard. Wifes and mothers of the mobilized soldiers complained to the head of Bashkortostan about the missing regional payouts for their families. One Krasnoyarsk conscript received a 4,206.50 paycheck for his month in training. Let us recall that President Putin promised each mobilized soldier 195 thousand rubles monthly including time spent in training. Relatives of conscripts in the Volgograd Region continue complaining about the lack of salary payments and financial support from their governor.

Mobilized soldiers continue their preparations at training grounds in the Eastern Military District. Tactical shooting practices are being conducted In Amur Region. In the Primorsky Region, shooting exercises from T-72B tanks and BTR-82A armored personnel carriers are happening.  In the Khabarovsk Region, the servicemen are practicing combat shooting and tactical post-fight maneuvering.

In Ivanovo, police today continued “rounding up” men of the eligible age at shopping centers, grocery stores, and entrances of large organizations. The governor of the Ivanovo Region Stanislav Voskresensky publicly chided the regional military commissar for this practice. The directive according to which the police conduct the “round-ups” looks like this: formally, they are “ensuring public order”. In reality, however, they are catching the men directly for the purposes of mobilization. Civil activists filed a formal complaint for the “round-ups” with the prosecutor's office. Mass “round-ups” of men happened in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Region. Draft office employees together with police awaited factory workers at the Gas Turbines Works as they were exiting the plant through the main exit after completing their shift. It is known that the plant’s director had previously refused to hand military summons to his employees.  In Yaroslavl, the traffic police officers are handing out military summons. According to Yaroslavl residents, they pull over cars driven by men and hand them the summons they fill out on the spot by hand.

The 55th Brigade of the mobilized from Polevskoy (Sverdlovsk region, Russia) was sent into the thick of battle without any training and unarmed. As a result only 20 survived out of 57 servicemen. Mothers and wives of the mobilized residents of Polevskoy asked the local draft office for help, but they were refused. The relatives filed a complaint with the draft office.

Without food, water, clothing, ammo or weapons — residents of Serov complained about the attitude to the mobilized. Some of them were available for communication for the last time in the beginning of October. They were sent to Millerovo (air base in Rostov region), and then they were deployed in the area of Lyman. When the mobilized phoned their relatives, they told them that they were not listed within their military unit, and that they were provided only with raw potatoes to eat, which they couldn’t cook because of the ban on making campfires. Water was supplied at the rate of 1.5 liters per two persons for two days. They had to leave their personal belongings and coats in trenches since all the staff was promised to be delivered later. They bury the killed mobilized by themselves and carry the wounded on their backs till they die.

The mobilized from the Vladimir region reported a widespread disease among the servicemen. According to a man, who introduced himself as the deputy platoon leader at the training center in Kovrov, the mobilized were stationed in one barrack. There was not enough space, so the servicemen began to feel unhealthy shortly. Currently numerous mobilized men complain about coughing (even with blood), but they don’t receive any medical treatment.

An engineer company of mobilized soldiers from Saint Petersburg was forced not only to equip themselves at their own expense, but also to deliver their personal belongings to the railway station at their own cost. And a mobilized man with schizophrenia was brought at a training ground in the Chelyabinsk region.

A mobilized soldier told about conditions in Ukrainian captivity and compared it to the conditions in the Russian army. Not in favor of the latter: «We were not beaten, we were fed. We were provided with candy, bread, which had never been given there [in the Russian army], provided with water».

The mobilized continue to leave their hometowns for military bases. Yesterday, four buses with mobilized people left Kuzbass — this is twice as many as usual. And today, on October 27, as many as 30 buses left Kemerovo for Yurga. The head of the Chulymsky district Svetlana Kudryavtseva burst into tears addressing the mobilized with a farewell speech. "My dear men, I am waiting for you back for the New Year, and I will always wait for you, and all those present today will pray to God," she said.

Russian Orthodox Deacon Aleksandr Sokolov spoke to the mobilized of Mariinsk and reproached the audience that few of them go to church. "What are you waiting for? Until the coffins come?" he asked angrily. It is for this phrase that the priest is now examined by a disciplinary commission.

156 more residents of the Perm region were sent to the war. Dispatches to training centers have been taking place for the last two days. On Tuesday, 13 people were sent from the Perm region to Tyumen, on Wednesday, 138 men left for Yelan, and on Thursday, the last five went to Tyumen for training. Currently, there are no plans to send more soldiers mobilized in the region.

A military commissariat issued a draft notice to Ilya Shumanov, the head of Transparency International in Russia. He is recognized as a “foreign agent” by Russian authorities. For a month, a family from Rubtsovsk, Altay region is trying to bring back home a mobilized father of three even though he is exempted from mobilization by an employer. A wife of a mobilized father of three from St. Petersburg is trying to bring him home, but a military commissariat advises her to get employed, while the mobilized man is already in the Belgorod region.

In Pskov, a man who did not receive a draft notice and is exempted from mobilization, since he works at an airport, decided to go abroad with his family for a vacation. The man submitted an application to a military commissariat to make sure he is allowed to leave Russia and that he would not have problems at the border. He attached return tickets and a hotel reservation to the application. A week and a half later, he received a refusal letter from the military commissariat saying that he is subject to mobilization.

The Ministry of Territorial Security of the Perm Region has issued a manual in which it advises the mobilized men and their relatives to refrain from posting photos showing their unblurred faces, photographs in balaclavas are recommended. The ministry believes that the photos can be used by Ukrainian security services. The governor of the region Dmitry Makhonin followed the advice and blurred the faces of the mobilized Permians in his post about the delivery of humanitarian aid at the training center in Yelan.

Military commissariats of Orel try to overtake the mobilization plan till the announcement of its end by Putin around the 1st of November 2022. They send a huge amount of draft notices to local factories covering about 50% of employees regardless of their citizenship.

Governments of Kaluga, Kurgan, Kursk, Saint Petersburg, Chelyabinsk regions and Chukotka consider the possibility to employ a student “labor mobilization” like Kuzbass does. It’s about replacing mobilized employees with students. Students can be sent to work places if there is a request from an employer.

A miller from Moscow was keeping a hunger strike against mobilization for 2 weeks and came back home. An officer shot at a mobilized soldier and broke his jaw in Yaroslavl. The mobilized arranged a brawl with authorities because of bad conditions and restrictions on family visits.

Mobilized soldier from Novosibirsk Ivan E. keeps a diary on Vkontakte social network. When he got a draft notice he began to pack “an emergency backpack”. He collected more than 50 items: hats, gloves, knee pads etc. He has spent about 80 000 rubles. But later, he confessed that not everything came in handy. For example, he was given clothes in the Novosibirsk Higher Military Command School and he wasn’t allowed to wear the “gorka” suit [mountain storm suit] that he bought.

Residents of Tomsk donated almost 9 000 000 rub. for things and equipment for the mobilized in their region, the Governor of Tomsk Vladimir Mazur declared. Meanwhile, it is known that teachers and employees of schools in Seversk, Tomsk region are asked to sign applications to withhold parts of their salaries to support the mobilized. State employees of Tula are forced to donate parts of their salaries for “soldier support” under threat of dismissal.