Mobilization in Russia for Oct. 3-4, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary

Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising

Russia plans to recruit no less than 225,000 contract soldiers in the next three years, concludes Vazhnyye Istorii [IStories], an independent Russian investigative media outlet, after reviewing the national budget proposal for 2025-2027, where 30 billion rubles [$316 million] are allocated annually for paying sign-up bonuses to individuals who enlist. Currently, these bonuses’ federal component is 400,000 rubles [$4,210], a figure increased by Vladimir Putin's decree on July 31. If it remains unchanged, the allocated funds would be sufficient to recruit 225,000 contract soldiers over the three-year period. Previously, Vazhnyye Istorii estimated that 345,000 individuals concluded contracts last year alone, and from the beginning of 2023 to mid-2024, the number of new contract soldiers has reached 511,000.

Authorities in the Khanty-Mansi autonomous region–Yugra [Russia's federal subject] have increased the sign-up bonus for enlisting to 2.2 million rubles [$23,200]. This represents an immediate raise of 900,000 rubles [$9,480] from the previous amount and sets a new record among regions for concluding a contract with the Ministry of Defense. Consequently, anyone enlisting in Yugra will now receive a one-time payment of 2,750,000 rubles [$29,000], including 400,000 and 150,000 rubles [$4,410 and $1,580] from the federal and municipal governments, respectively.

Governor of Kurgan region Vadim Shumkov has increased the regional sign-up bonus for enlisting by 2.5 times, raising the one-time payment from 650,000 rubles to 1.6 million rubles [from $6,870 to $16,900].

Since the beginning of the year, at least 45 regions have increased the sign-up bonuses for concluding a contract with the Ministry of Defense, reports the 7x7—Gorizontalnaya Rossiya [Horizontal Russia] news outlet.

Beginning Oct. 1, Sarama region residents will be paid 15,000 rubles [$160] for each soldier they bring in to sign a contract. The person they refer must sign the contract before the money can be paid out as confirmed by certificates to be issued by draft offices. On Aug. 1, the Samara regional sign-up bonus for signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense increased to 650,000 rubles [$6,850]. The total payout there reached 1.2 million rubles [$12,600].

Bailiffs in the Moscow and Ulyanovsk regions are sending out mass mailings to debtors, both male and female, encouraging them to enter contracts with the Ministry of Defense. The letters point out possible suspension of debt collection actions upon signing.

Saint Petersburg authorities conducted a "massive roundup" at the city’s main markets. As a result, 150 naturalized Russian citizens were brought to a draft office. Over 600 people had their papers checked during the action.

Passengers arriving into Yekaterinburg airport were met with draft notices handed out by enlistment office personnel in the customs area. According to the Military Investigation Department of the Central Military District, 10 people were immediately brought to a draft office where the contract signing process was explained to them.

The Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] Telegram channel has reported that in Barnaul, [Altai region, representatives of a draft office plan to visit one of the classes at the Altai State Pedagogical University. All men are required to attend, while women who wish to sign a contract with the MoD may choose to do so. Additionally, an Altai region resident has informed the Idite Lesom! Project that the administration of one of the village councils is making calls to locals demanding that men report to a draft office to sign a contract.

The Voyennye Advokaty [Military Lawyers] Telegram channel has published a detailed article on the process of appealing a draft board's decision to conscript an individual into the army.

Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers

Based on open sources, Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] and BBC News Russian, together with volunteers, have verified the names of 72,004 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine, including 9,180 mobilized soldiers. Over the past week, the list has been supplemented with 947 soldiers, including 180 mobilized men. Moreover, an analysis conducted by BBC News Russian indicated that the 155th and 40th Naval Infantry Units alone may have lost 40% of their pre-war personnel, or over 2,100 people, near Vuhledar. Of these, up to 700 were killed or missing, while the remainder were seriously wounded.

A 41-year-old contract soldier from the Omsk region has reported on extortion and physical abuse by his command. Shortly before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he moved from the Omsk region to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and signed a contract with separatist military formations, which later became the 110th Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces. The contract soldier reported the prevalence of corruption, drug abuse, beatings and torture within the unit. After refusing to pay the commanders, the soldier was transported to the unit’s temporary deployment point located on territory of a former shoe factory in the city of Makiivka, Russian-annexed part of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, where soldiers, according to him, are subjected to torture and beatings. After some time, the contract soldier was taken to a training range, where threats and extortion continued. The man managed to escape and has been in hiding since April.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

In Novosibirsk, a former Wagner Group mercenary pardoned for his participation in the war has been detained on suspicion of brutally assaulting a local woman. The Sib.fm media outlet published a photo of the alleged attacker with a blurred face, referring to him as Mikhail T. The beaten woman ended up in intensive care, underwent a craniotomy and was in a coma. According to her son, the criminal had previously been imprisoned for murder, but in the penal colony, he signed a contract with the Wagner Group and was deployed to the war. A criminal case has been initiated for attempted murder.

In the Moscow region, Andrey Sh., a former Wagner Group mercenary, has been sentenced to four years in a penal colony for assaulting an acquaintance and causing blindness. The court considered his participation in the war as a mitigating factor.

In Khakassia [Russia’s constituent republic], a court has sentenced serviceman Artysh Aka to six and a half years in a penal colony for causing grievous bodily harm with a weapon and for going AWOL. Aka left his unit in December 2023 and headed home to be with his family. In March, he was detained on suspicion of attacking a man, whom he stabbed in the back "due to personal hostility."

In Moscow, 25-year-old conscript Ilya Shur successfully appealed the draft board’s decision and overturned the decisions of the medical evaluation board and the district court. In April, he appeared at the draft office in response to a draft notice for a "military registration data check-up," where he was immediately sent for medical examination. Despite his complaints about poor eyesight, he was deemed fit for military service with minor restrictions. Shur filed a lawsuit to have the decision declared illegal and annulled. As a result, the conscription decision was suspended. Despite this, police officers detained him, as he had been declared wanted for evading military service. Thanks to the intervention of lawyers, Shur was released, and no criminal case was filed. Ultimately, the Moscow City Court sided with the conscript and overturned the draft board’s decision.

In the Rostov region, the former deputy head of the Investigative Committee for the Frunzensky district of Saint Petersburg, 49-year-old Aleksey Panzhev, who had gone to war, was detained while crossing the border. During an inspection, Kalashnikov assault rifles and live grenades were found in the trunk of his car. A criminal case has been initiated for the illegal possession and transportation of weapons.

In the early hours of Oct. 3, an unidentified individual threw a bottle with a flammable liquid through the window of the regional office of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in Novosibirsk. The attacker broke the window, leaned through the glass, and tossed the bottle into the office. During the fire, the flames spread to the man’s clothing, but he managed to extinguish them and escape. According to the Baza Telegram channel, the office was completely burned out. Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate also reported the arson.

A court in Chita has arrested two teenagers for setting fire to a cellular communication station in the village of Energetikov. The detainees, aged 17 and 16, have been charged with sabotage. According to the prosecution, in September, they allegedly broke into the station at night, destroyed a metal cabinet containing equipment, doused it with a flammable liquid, and set it on fire. The damage from their actions is estimated at 1.5 million rubles [$15,800]. They reportedly committed the crime for money promised by an unknown "handler."

In Stavropol, a resident of Irkutsk was sentenced to six years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of high treason. The man was detained by border guards at the Mineralnye Vody International Airport. According to investigators, he had planned to join a Ukrainian armed formation. Allegedly, he found instructions for enlistment on a social network, contacted the group's representatives, and provided a list of required documents. After his candidacy was approved, he obtained a passport for traveling abroad and purchased plane tickets. He was detained while attempting to leave Russia.

Maksim Zotov, a human rights activist from Penza, was sentenced to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of high treason and attempted "confidential" cooperation with foreigners. According to the prosecution, in the summer of 2022, Zotov sent a letter offering cooperation against Russia’s interests to a foreign embassy, communicated via email with representatives of foreign entities, and passed personal information of two Russian soldiers to a representative of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Zotov denied the charges, accusing law enforcement officers of provocation. He claimed that an FSB agent posing as an MI6 officer named Fred had been corresponding with him. BBC News Russian previously reported extensively on Zotov’s case.

In the Belgorod region, a native of the Kharkiv region was sentenced to 12.5 years in a maximum-security penal colony for financing the AFU, also under high treason charges. According to investigators, the man opposed the war with Ukraine and actively provided financial support to members of Ukrainian armed formations participating in combat operations against the Russian Armed Forces.

The Moscow City Court confirmed its initial sentences given to Artyom Kamardin and Yegor Shtovba following their participation in unofficial poetry readings in Triumfalnaya Square in Moscow (the Mayakovsky Readings case). Both men had been arrested in September 2022 after reciting poems and received prison terms for allegedly calling for action against national security and for inciting hatred and violence. The poets appealed the court’s decision but the court confirmed its initial judgment, sentencing Kamardin to seven years and Shtovba to five years six months in a penal colony.

Assistance

In Saint Petersburg, businesses with a number of employees from 35 to 100 will be required to reserve 2% of jobs for people with disabilities, whereas for larger businesses the employment quota for people with disabilities will amount to 2.5%.

Children and Educational System

At the Omsk Pedagogical University, about 500 teachers of "Fundamentals of Homeland Security and Defense," now a mandatory subject in Russian schools, received training in operating drones and learned how to dig the trenches.

In the Leningrad region, two fighters from the Wagner Group conducted a "lesson of courage" for students at a hockey school. One of them, 34-year-old Andrey Reilyanu, had been convicted on drug charges. The second, Vitaly Sarmin, is listed as a "Russian war criminal" on the Ukrainian war crime-tracking website Myrotvorets. Meanwhile, a "lesson of courage" for students at a school in the Vladimir region was held by Igor Krayushkin, a participant in the war with Ukraine who had previously been convicted of robbery. When asked about killing a person, Krayushkin stated, "That wasn’t just a person, but an enemy."

Authorities in Buryatia [Russia's constituent republic] removed a post about the creation of a "police" class for eight-year-old children at one of the schools. Buryatia's Commissioner for Children's Rights Natalya Gankina claims that the students were merely given a tour of a police station.

Regions spent over 100 million rubles [$1.05 million] on holding the All-Russian military-patriotic game Zarnitsa 2.0, according to calculations by the Ne Norma [Not a norm] Telegram channel.

During the "Talking About Important Things" lesson [a compulsory lesson held every Monday in schools across the country] scheduled for next Monday, 10th and 11th-grade students will be asked to provide examples that prove "Russian soldiers have never entered foreign capitals as conquerors." One of the required examples must include the invasion of Ukraine, according to the lesson plan.

According to the From Karelia with Freedom Telegram channel, parents in preschools in the city of Petrozavodsk are being offered to sign an agreement on the "patriotic education" of their children.

Longreads

The Coalition Against Propaganda publication recalls the stories of fallen conscript soldiers, while the Sibir.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet tells the story of twins Dmitry and Konstantin Reshka. The young men were drafted for mandatory military service from the Omsk region, and in August of this year, they both were lkilled in the Belgorod region.

The Pskovskaya Guberniya media outlet spoke with the relatives of mobilized soldiers from the 1009th Regiment, who went missing near the town of Vovchansk. Their families report that no effort is being made to find the missing, and the regiment's commander is allegedly taking bribes in exchange for allowing soldiers to avoid participating in assault missions.

The Novaya Vkladka [New Tab] media outlet shares the story of a participant in the war in Ukraine who underwent a gender transition and was subsequently discharged from the army. Now, she describes herself as very conservative, stating that she is extremely homophobic, transphobic and patriotic.

The Vot Tak [Like This] media outlet has calculated that at least 21 Russian officials attempted to go to the frontline in order to avoid criminal prosecution.

The Novaya Gazeta Europe [European edition of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta] released a piece about the rapid rise in the number of military-patriotic NGOs following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Sever.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet explores how the militarization of education might impact children's future, while the Spektr media outlet interviewed university professors who were forced to leave Russia due to their anti-war stance, shedding light on the transformation of higher education institutions.