Mobilization in Russia for Oct. 29-31, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary

Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising

In Russia's Samara region, the reward for recruiting a new contract soldier has surged to 100,000 rubles [$1,030], more than tripling previous incentives. To claim it, "freelance recruiters" must obtain a certificate from the draft office. This marks the second increase in a month: on Oct. 1, authorities introduced an initial payout of 15,000 rubles [$150], which was elevated to 30,000 rubles [$310] two weeks later. Now, Samara's incentive matches the nation's highest recruitment rewards, comparable to those offered in the Yaroslavl region and in Russia’s constituent Republic of Tatarstan, where recruiters also receive 100,000 rubles for each new contract soldier. Novaya Gazeta Europe [European edition of the Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta] details these recent bonuses and examines activists’ concerns about potential scams.

On Oct. 28, the Belgorod regional government announced an additional monthly allowance of 45,000 rubles [$460] for members of the BARS-Belgorod volunteer unit for "completing certain combat tasks." To qualify, volunteers must conclude a contract for a year or more and serve at least 30 days. With this new allowance, BARS-Belgorod members will earn from 125,000 rubles [$1,290] per month. Furthermore, the regional government formed a state unitary enterprise [type of legal entity] comprising members of the territorial defense forces and other local volunteers. This new unit will report to Rosgvardia [the Russian National Guard] and will guard critical infrastructure, similar to BARS-Belgorod. Its members will receive a minimum monthly wage of 80,000 rubles [$820]. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said both active law enforcement officers and first responders would be barred from joining either BARS-Belgorod or the new state unitary enterprise.

On Oct. 13, Ramzan Kadyrov, Head of Chechnya [Russia's constituent republic], announced the formation of a new regiment of 2,500 troops to be deployed to the war in Ukraine. Officially, the unit will be made up of volunteers, but local residents fear that the authorities will forcibly recruit those who have fallen out of favor with the republic's leadership. The Kavkaz.Realii [Caucasus.Realities, part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] media outlet explores whom the authorities plan to enlist in this new unit and the recruitment tactics being used.

A court in Russia’s Krasnodar region has suspended a murder case after the defendant decided to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense. Pavel Loginov was charged with conspiring and committing a murder as part of a group and aggravated by battery, extortion or banditism. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. However, the court suspended the case and canceled the arrest order after a petition from a military draft office official. SOTAvision points out that this is the first precedent in Russia of a criminal case being suspended due to the defendant's decision to sign a contract with the MoD. Thanks to a recently enacted law, defendants now have such an option.

On Oct. 30, schools in Perm simultaneously published advertisements on their official VKontakte social network pages, encouraging people to enlist in the army and take part in the war in Ukraine. With a call to "Join our side," the posts tell of benefits and payouts for signing military contracts, including a promised 4.5 million rubles [$46,400] for the first year of service. In addition, one of the city’s companies has been forced to include similar promotional banners in all of its email communications. Earlier, Perm city officials started to include ads about the contract military service in their emails to residents.

A banner advertising the African Corps—the remnants of the Wagner Group in Africa now under the control of the Russian MoD—has appeared in the city of Yekaterinburg, reportedly recruiting people for service abroad. It is specified, however, that transfers from the zone of "special military operation" are not permitted. A journalist working for the It’s My City news outlet tried to call the numbers listed on the ad but received no response.

Law enforcement in Kemerovo reported that two men, ages 31 and 35, have been stripped of their naturalized Russian citizenship for failing to register with the military. According to police, the men will be barred from re-entering Russia for the next 25 years. To date, we know of 15 naturalized citizens who have lost their Russian passports for evading military registration.

In the Leningrad region, police conducted mass raids in areas with compact Roma settlements. As a result of the raids, more than 50 individuals were compelled to register for military service.

Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers

The wife of Zakhar Karpov, a deceased 35-year-old mobilized soldier from Khabarovsk, has been denied payments and information about the circumstances of her husband's death for two and a half months. In December 2023, Yelena, Karpov's wife, reported to the Ostorozhno, Novosti [Beware the News] Telegram channel that her husband had never been on leave. Following the publication of this information by Ostorozhno, Novosti, Karpov was finally granted leave. Yelena stated that throughout her husband's two years of service, she had transferred a total of about 3.5 million rubles [$36,100], with the final transfer of 150,000 rubles [$1,550] made two weeks before his death. This money was allegedly allocated for the needs of the military unit. In August, Yelena was informed of her husband's demise. Although no official cause of death was provided, the death certificate indicated that Karpov suffered from heart failure. Moreover, Yelena was prohibited from opening her husband's coffin. She noted that the day before his death, he appeared to be in good health and had no complaints. That day, Karpov told her that he and several other soldiers had been placed in a pit for two weeks due to a mobile phone being found in the possession of a fellow soldier. For two and a half months, Yelena and her parents have not received survivor's benefits. Additionally, the draft office to which Karpov was assigned has also denied his wife payments, citing the cause of death as illness rather than combat-related injuries.

A soldier expecting medical leave was instead sent to an assault mission. In August, Denis Ch., a serviceman from the 5th Motorized Rifle Brigade, sustained multiple shrapnel wounds. A hospital put his arm in a cast and granted him a 30-day medical leave. However, his unit refused to release him, removing the cast despite his arm still needing time to heal. When he attempted to escape, he was detained in a basement in the Petrovskyi district of Donetsk, where he spent two months. During his detention, he was forced to participate in assaults at least twice. Other soldiers needing medical attention were also held alongside him. According to the Astra Telegram channel, the 5th Brigade manages several such facilities for the detention and torture of soldiers.

In the city of Arkhangelsk, relatives of Wagner Group mercenaries attempted to record a video address to Putin. They sought to urge authorities to recognize killed mercenaries as volunteer fighters and to extend existing military benefits to both the deceased and their families. During the recording, police approached the gathering, demanding they remove "banners and flags" on the grounds that their display could be interpreted as an unauthorized public demonstration. Later, the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that a “preventive conversation” was held with those participating in the recording. The police’s request to remove the flag provoked anger among the women present.

The mother of a Wagner Group mercenary is unable to obtain official documentation confirming her son's death, and all related compensation has been awarded to an unknown individual. Twenty-three-year-old Anton Mangirov from the Irkutsk region had been serving a sentence for theft, joined the Wagner Group in January 2023 and was killed in February. Anna Gerasimenko, his mother, learned of her son's death from a stranger who claimed that Mangirov had supposedly written a will while in the penal colony, naming him as the beneficiary. According to Gerasimenko, this individual received all compensation payments and arranged her son’s funeral on March 2, 2023. Friends informed her that this person is allegedly a member of law enforcement, but she does not know his identity or current location. Despite possessing a cemetery burial record, the Civil Registry Office has refused to issue a death certificate. The Ministry of Defense, Wagner Group representatives, the governor and the Commissioner for Human Rights have all stated that they have no records of Mangirov’s death.

The Investigative Committee of the Omsk region has initiated a criminal case for going AWOL against nurse Galina Kostikova, who volunteered to go to the front in 2022 and was later found murdered. In November 2023, Kostikova stopped making contact and was declared missing. In October, her son reported that he had been recognized as a victim in the murder case of his mother. The Investigative Committee has since announced that the AWOL case has been closed due to the suspect’s death.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

In the "LPR," a soldier attempted to demonstrate to a 13-year-old student how to fire a grenade launcher, but due to accidental ammunition detonation, the boy was killed.

In the village of Korenevo, Kursk region, unknown individuals have ransacked and looted a Rosneft gas station. Additionally, Astra published two videos from the same village showing the aftermath of looting in a residential building. In the first video, residents documented their missing valuables. In the second, military police officers inspected an apartment building and noted that "all apartments have been broken into, and everything has been taken." Reports of looting have also come from the village of Kobylki in the Glushkovsky district. A local resident arrived to check on his property and found the front door broken off, with the TV and other valuables missing. The video also shows a camouflage jacket with a Russian tricolor. Previously, the governor of the Kursk region claimed that reports of looting in the region were "planted rumors by enemy intelligence services." However, reports of looting in the border regions have been coming in for several months.

A 33-year-old ex-convict from Omsk, Aleksandr, who was pardoned for participating in the war, killed an elderly woman over a mere 5,500 rubles [$57]. The man had multiple prior convictions, went to war after serving his sentence in prison, was later pardoned and returned from the front in November 2023. In January, he planned to rob an elderly neighbor after learning that she kept money in her apartment. Before the robbery, he took a dose of drugs. During the robbery, he killed the 80-year-old woman but found only 5,500 rubles in the apartment. He was detained, and during the court hearing, his lawyer insisted that Aleksandr should be released under house arrest because he intended to rejoin the army. However, the court kept him in pre-trial detention pending the investigation.

Former convicts who deserted from the frontlines have been detained in the Leningrad region. Aleksandr Igumenov, Mark Frolov and Vladimir Nikin had previously been convicted multiple times, mostly for theft, but were released from criminal liability for participating in the war with Ukraine. All three deserted from the frontline. The escapees were found in a village in the Leningrad region. When MoD officers attempted to detain them, Igumenov pulled out a gun and ordered them to leave. The officers then called for reinforcements and stormed the house where the deserters were hiding. The men were apprehended and brought to the Military Investigative Committee. A criminal case for desertion has been initiated.

The court in the self-proclaimed "LPR" sentenced the head of the military commandant’s detention center to a three-year on probation in a negligence case that led to the death of a mobilized soldier, as reported by the Public Verdict Telegram channel. He was found guilty for failing to confiscate the shoelaces from mobilized soldier Aleksandr Tirskikh, who was found hanged in the spring of last year. Shortly before his death, Tirskikh had informed his family about harassment and threats from commandant’s office personnel. On March 20, Tirskikh told his family that he had been detained and asked for help, after which he was no longer reachable. His relatives contacted the military unit and draft office and were initially told that Tirskikh was in a combat zone. Two months later, they were informed he had allegedly committed suicide on March 20.

In the Primorsky region, a mobilized soldier was sentenced to two years and two months in a penal settlement for refusal to execute an order. The man, who had been injured on the front lines, declined to return to the combat zone after receiving treatment. Reportedly, he does not plan to appeal the verdict, citing an earlier start date of his sentence, which could allow for the possibility of early release.

In the Moscow region, a 25-year-old man named Pavel from Istra were detained for going AWOL. After mobilization was announced in September 2022, Pavel left Russia but later returned home. He claims he never received a draft notice. On Sept. 1, 2024, military police came to his home, stating that Pavel was listed as having gone AWOL in the "special military operation" zone in 2022. The Istra draft office, where he is registered, confirmed that Pavel was neither mobilized nor under contract with the Ministry of Defense. According to Pavel, he began receiving deposits of 180,000 rubles [$1,860] in a bank account at some point. During the investigation, he was temporarily assigned to a military unit in the Moscow region, where he is challenging his enlistment order in court.

In the Vladimir region, recruitment center employees were accused of stealing 11 million rubles [$113,400] from soldiers’ bank accounts.

Two Ukrainian citizens, Aleksandr Maistruk and Eduard Usatenko, are currently on trial in Saint Petersburg. They are charged with terrorism, illegal acquisition and trafficking of explosives, sabotage and undergoing sabotage training. According to law enforcement, the men, allegedly under the direction of the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service, blew up one power pylon at the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant and planted bombs under seven pylons at the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant in the Tver region. Maistruk and Usatenko were detained in May 2023, and the damage caused by their actions was estimated by prosecutors to be approximately 10.86 million rubles [$112,000].

In Moscow, 22-year-old student Ibragim Orudzhev was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony. According to Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet], he was charged with terrorism training and preparing an act of terror. The prosecutor had requested an 18-year sentence. Orudzhev was detained on Nov. 10 last year while photographing a draft office. According to law enforcement, he spent a year and a half preparing for an act of terror. They claim he studied how to handle weapons and explosives and conducted reconnaissance near the draft office for a potential arson attempt. Orudzhev, however, insists he was only taking a photo of the office’s schedule to register there. He also reported experiencing abuse from law enforcement officers while in pre-trial detention.

Children and Educational System

In Balakovo, Saratov region, the local education committee is inviting elementary school students to make decorative trench candles as part of the New Year—The Best Family Holiday contest.

Alexander Beglov, Governor of Saint Petersburg, shared that 118 children from the occupied city of Mariupol had been brought to the city for their fall vacation and would visit local landmarks.

Two kindergartens in the Nizhny Novgorod region have announced an auction for the purchase of "patriotic play equipment," with a budget exceeding 500,000 rubles [$5,150]. Journalists from Novaya Gazeta Europe previously reported that one in eight activities in Russian preschools has a "military-patriotic" theme.

The administration of the Saratov National Research State University has asked students to complete a survey on Russian youth policy and their views on the "special military operation." Meanwhile, students at the Belgorod State Institute of Arts and Culture have reported that the administration is pressuring them to donate funds in support of the military.