Mobilization in Russia for Oct. 28-30, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary

Authorities and Legislation

The Federation Council [upper house of Russia’s Federal Assembly] approved a bill on "year-round conscription." If Putin signs it, the changes will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.

The Plenum of the Supreme Court consolidated several rulings on cases related to the rights of service members, "volunteer fighters" and their families:

• The jurisdiction of military courts will expand to include cases where plaintiffs or defendants are reservists, volunteer unit members or service members on military training courses, as well as cases related to their financial and disciplinary liability.
• Individuals can appeal to military courts in cases of extrajudicial detention.
• Individuals who sign contracts to join volunteer units must receive the same social guarantees as regular service members. They also bear the same financial and disciplinary liability, since volunteer unit members became subject to military criminal law in 2025.
• Courts must follow an individualized approach when hearing cases related to early discharge for family circumstances and consider the interests of minors, especially if the service member is the sole parent. Notably, single fathers still report facing difficulties leaving military service despite Putin signing a decree in May 2025 expanding the grounds for discharge.

Army Recruitment

A 49-year-old resident of Serov in the Sverdlovsk region, Aleksandr Gook, who was accused of murdering his acquaintance Olga Soroka and her six-year-old son, avoided a life sentence by signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense to fight in the war. According to investigators, in November 2024, 42-year-old Soroka and her son visited Gook at his home. While drinking alcohol, Gook pushed the child, who had been bothering him, causing the boy to hit his head and die from the injury. He then killed the boy’s mother, dismembered both bodies, and disposed of the remains. The woman’s head was later found in a local garden cooperative, but the rest of the remains were never recovered. Gook confessed to the crime. According to the outlet 66.ru, his detention period has expired, but the case has not been sent to court, and the Investigative Committee declined to comment.

A resident of Tyumen, Ivan Abramov, who was convicted in 2007 of raping and murdering a 16-year-old girl, has gone to fight in the war. The 40-year-old Abramov was released in the summer of 2025 after serving 19 years in a penal colony and remained under supervision. At the end of October, he was detained for assaulting a local woman—after she refused to kiss him, he broke her nose. Reports suggest that Abramov may have signed a military contract before the attack and was awaiting deployment.

Former head of the Irkutsk Directorate of Highways Yuliya Gordina, who was sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony for accepting a bribe, has filed a request to be sent to the war. She reportedly intends to serve as a field medic.

A Moscow court has closed the criminal case against Ruslan Gorring, former first deputy head of Rosgeologia, who had been accused of large-scale fraud. Two weeks before sentencing, he left for the frontline. According to investigators, Gorring and his accomplices embezzled 12.6 million rubles [$157,800] allocated under a fictitious contract. His co-defendants received real prison terms—three years and five and a half years in a penal colony. Gorring himself had previously served a three-year sentence for fraud.

The Nizhny Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Tambov and Tyumen regions, are forming units to guard industrial sites against drone attacks, offering locals three-year reservist contracts. Following this, they will undergo retraining at a training range for 15 days and then serve on the territory of a factory for 45 days. Authorities claim that reservists will serve exclusively within their regions of residence and will not be deployed to Ukraine. In the Yaroslavl region, reservists are promised to maintain their current employment and average salaries, as well as receive a monetary reward of 40,000 rubles [$500] from the MoD for their participation in the training, with at least an additional 50,000 rubles [$620] from the factory. The Tambov region is offering a payment of 30,000 rubles [$370] from the MoD. In the Tyumen region, reservists will continue to receive their average salary from their workplace, as well as a monetary allowance determined by their military rank and position, ranging from 30,000 rubles [$370] to 50,000 rubles [$620] monthly. According to the Nizhny Novgorod region military commissar, the first platoon of the BARS-NN unit has already been formed and sent for training. Earlier, the authorities of the Leningrad region reported the formation of a similar BARS-47 unit. Recently, the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia] adopted a law that will allow the deployment of people from the mobilization manpower reserve to perform tasks of the MoD in peacetime without formal declaration of mobilization.

The authorities of Russia's constituent Republic of Karelia are forming "people's militias" to guard the border with Finland. Simultaneously, the Finnish land forces have announced their plans to involve 15,000 soldiers in military exercises scheduled from November to December, including near the Russian borders.

As Meduza [international Russian-language online media outlet] has found out, in August 2021, by a decree of Putin, the regular number of the mobilization manpower reserve was increased from a couple of thousand to 100,000 people. The current regular number of the reserve of the Russian army is likely to be specified in a decree of 2025, but the data from there is not available.

Fall Conscription Campaign

A 28-year-old conscript who received an electronic draft notice for a medical examination was able to fly out of Russia. He received the draft notice on Oct. 27—his first in ten years—and has no military ID. The man bought a ticket around midnight and three hours later passed through passport control at Vnukovo Airport, heading to Kazakhstan and then Thailand. According to him, border guards checked his old-style foreign passport, stamped it and asked no questions.

An appeals court ruled that the refusal to allow removal from military registration without appearing in person was unlawful. A Moscow resident who has been permanently living in Germany since September 2022 and holds a residence permit attempted to remove himself from military registration in Russia, but the draft office refused, citing the absence of a functioning Unified Military Register. He was told that all registration and deregistration actions must be accompanied by personal presence and submission of original documents. He attempted to challenge the decision in court, but the first-instance court sided with the draft office. However, the appeals court found the draft office's refusal unlawful and ordered it to reconsider his application for removal from military registration.

Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts

A cadet at the S.M. Budyonny Military Academy of Communications complained that he and other students are being held at the academy against their will. The 17-year-old enrolled in summer 2025 and just one month later submitted a request for expulsion, but leadership ignored the appeal and stated they would only consider it in the fall—even though after the first year, cadets are required to sign a five-year military service contract that cannot be terminated before mobilization ends. Yevgeny feared that his expulsion would be deliberately delayed to force him to sign the contract. He ultimately managed to leave—according to him, thanks to family pressure and medical reasons. According to Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories, independent Russian investigative media outlet], about 20 more cadets from the academy have submitted expulsion requests. Human rights defenders confirm that it is now nearly impossible to withdraw from a military university—even for academic failure or health reasons.

A 50-year-old Saint Petersburg resident, Anatoly Petrosyan, who has previously experienced clinical death several times and requires constant use of a pacemaker, was lured under false pretenses first to Ryazan and then to Nizhny Novgorod, where he was forced to sign a contract and sent to a military unit in the Voronezh region. Petrosyan's daughter located him at the Pogonovo training range and traveled there, but was not permitted to meet with her father. With the help of an attorney, she was able to determine that her father is listed in the 1428th regiment and has already participated in combat operations, sustaining a leg wound. However, he is now being sent back to the forward positions.

Russian soldiers broke into and ransacked the homes of residents in the town of Novaya Tavolzhanka in the Belgorod region. In one of the published videos, local residents found a house that had been broken into, where two drunk soldiers described as deserters were hiding. Another video shows a house that soldiers forced open with a crowbar. In search of valuables, they opened all the drawers and left behind bottles of alcohol, military rations, camouflage nets and even one soldier’s personal ID tag.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

58-year-old war veteran Vladimir Sharafutdinov from Khakassia [Russia’s constituent republic] raped a female student on the Moscow-Abakan train. The incident took place on Oct. 18. The serviceman was questioned but not detained; he told law enforcement officers that the student had allegedly consented to sex.

In Saint Petersburg, 34-year-old deserter Stanislav Ledenyov was detained. In February 2023, he stabbed to death a priest’s wife. The woman’s body, bearing multiple stab wounds, was found in the entryway of her apartment building. A few hours later, police detained Ledenyov, who had served in the church alongside his wife. During the investigation, he stated that the priest’s wife had caught him stealing and planned to fire him.

In the spring of 2024, Ledenyov was sentenced to eight years in a maximum security penal colony, but in the summer he signed a contract with the MoD. In September 2025, he deserted his unit and returned to Saint Petersburg, where he was identified and arrested by criminal investigators.

A Russian serviceman named Aleksey Kostrikin has been detained in the Belgorod region on suspicion of murdering a local man from the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka and raping his wife. The Investigative Committee has launched a criminal investigation. According to the Pepel Belgorod Telegram channel, the incident occurred in the early hours of Oct. 29 in the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka. Kostrikin, along with other servicemen, broke into a house while the owners were asleep. He then reportedly killed the male homeowner and raped his wife before fleeing the scene. Kostrikin was detained "within hours" of the attack. The Fonar [Lantern] independent media outlet reported that the deceased victim was 56 years old, worked at a "large Shebekino factory" and had been providing assistance to Russian soldiers. His wife is reportedly a school teacher.

Vladimir Aleksandrov, a 41-year-old man and former participant in the war with a prior criminal conviction, has been sentenced to life imprisonment. The conviction was based on two separate attacks: the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in Nizhny Tagil, and the rape and unlawful detention of a 20-year-old woman.

In Russia’s constituent Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Aleksey Mikhaylov, a previously convicted 40-year-old former soldier who participated in the invasion of Ukraine, was sentenced to six years in a penal colony for attempted murder. The charge stems from an incident in March 2025 where Mikhailov became enraged during an argument about the war with an acquaintance and stabbed the man in the neck. The victim survived due to prompt medical intervention. Mikhailov denied intent to kill his friend. The court considered his participation in the war and his military awards as mitigating factors in determining the sentence.

A court has sent war participant Mikhail Slobodyan to a pre-trial detention center. On Oct. 27, he hit and killed two sisters aged 9 and 7, while another 11-year-old child was taken to intensive care in critical condition. During the hearing, it became known that he had signed a contract in 2023 and held the rank of corporal. He told the judge that he had been awarded the Suvorov Medal. It was also revealed that while participating in the war, he had received eight injuries, including concussions, the most recent occurring three months ago. He was on leave for treatment. Alcohol was found in Slobodyan’s blood—0.753 milligrams per liter, equivalent to approximately 1.6 liters of vodka consumed—as well as traces of marijuana and methamphetamine. Slobodyan pleaded guilty.

In Russia, the number of criminal cases for hooliganism has nearly doubled. In the first half of 2025, there were 767 such cases, compared to 425 cases in the same period the previous year. A total of 234 people were convicted, 217 of them were under the second part of the article, which provides for up to seven years of imprisonment. The total amount of fines exceeded 13.6 million rubles [$169,800], and the number of suspended sentences increased from 189 to 330. At the same time, the number of misdemeanor hooliganism cases (minor public order violations) declined: 61,216 people were punished compared to 72,676 in 2024. Lawyers and psychologists attribute the increase in criminal cases to the return of soldiers from the frontline, post-traumatic stress and rising social tension.

A court in Vladimir has sentenced 27-year-old local resident Vladislav Afanasyev to eight years in a penal colony under articles related to the illegal manufacture and transportation of explosive devices, arson and the use of violence against government officials. According to investigators, in April 2024 Afanasyev, following instructions from an unidentified person, threw a Molotov cocktail at the building of the Vladimir regional government and set fire to a service vehicle, causing 2.1 million rubles [$26,200] in damages. While attempting to escape, he sprayed pepper spray at officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB). In court, Afanasyev stated that he had mistaken the law enforcement officers for criminals, as they had not identified themselves, and pleaded guilty to property damage only.

In Saint Petersburg, a court has arrested a 17-year-old male and a 21-year-old female on charges of an act of terror. According to investigators, they set fire to a battery cabinet on the railway between Srednerogatskaya and Kupchinskaya stations near Pulkovo Airport in exchange for a $400 reward.

In the Samara region, two 17-year-olds have been detained on suspicion of carrying out an act of terror. According to investigators, the teenagers allegedly set fire to an electrical transformer cabinet near the Stakhanovskaya railway station in October 2025, after being promised a 20,000 rubles [$250] reward by an unidentified person who contacted them through a messaging app.

In the city of Cheboksary, 17-year-old Ilya F. has been accused of preparing an act of terror. Since June 2025, he has been under house arrest, and his name has been added to the list of extremists and terrorists maintained by the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation (Rosfinmonitoring). Authorities have not disclosed further details about the case.

In the Nizhny Novgorod region, two local residents have been detained in connection with another alleged terrorist attack. Police say the suspects, acting "under remote influence from unidentified individuals" and in exchange for a promised payment, set fire to a cell tower in the town of Pavlovo.

The FSB announced the arrest of a resident of Georgiyevsk in the Stavropol region, who is suspected of preparing an act of terror. According to the intelligence service, the man allegedly made contact with a representative of a "Ukrainian terrorist organization," photographed and filmed a transportation infrastructure site, purchased components for an improvised explosive device and hid them in a cache. He was detained while en route to the suspected detonation site.

The human rights organization Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial reported that at least 49 people in Russia have died while facing politically motivated criminal charges. Among them are Alexei Navalny, Viktoria Roshchyna, Pavel Kushnir, Alexander Demidenko and others. Most of these deaths occurred in pretrial detention centers or penal colonies after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.