Summary of the mobilization in Russian Federation, October 4-5
Istories Media and CIT conducted a study featuring which regions mobilized the most men for the war, and calculated that in Russia, they could mobilize 213 thousand people from 53 regions. Verstka media outlet cites information received from sources that the regional authorities instructed the military commissariats [enlistment offices] to mobilize 2-4 times more men than the Ministry of Defense stated.
Vladimir Putin announced that he had issued a decree making adjustments to the categories of people exempt from mobilization. In addition to full-time students [a presidential decree from September 24 already exempts them], evening students and graduate students are granted exemption from mobilization. The Russian State Duma clarified the provisions of the draft bill on the introduction of a tax on those who did not serve in the army.
Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin signed a decree on additional measures to support families of the mobilized, including one-time financial assistance for all family members. Similarly families of mobilized residents of Kaluga region were exempted from paying for public kindergartens.
A military commissar from St. Petersburg shared his understanding of the terms “military experience” and “combat experience”. He suggested to equate military courses alongside a degree [which is still common in many Russian universities] with military experience, because he believes that theoretical knowledge acquired at military courses is solidified at reservist training. And the vice-governors of St.Petersburg were instructed to organize mobilization among public workers.
The Republic of Mari El authorities announced that they fulfilled the task of the Ministry of Defense for the first stage of partial mobilization. According to Vazhnye Istorii media outlet, the number of mobilized residents in the republic exceeds the national average by 26 percent. It should be noted that out of 1,700 people planned for mobilization 900 were recruited by the time of the first reports on its completion.
Although the governor of Novosibirsk region claimed that the first stage of mobilization is completed, in fact, it continues. Katod factory, based in the city of Novosibirsk, which produces night vision devices, received an order from a military commissariat to provide 60 workers for mobilization. Similarly in the Republic of Buryatia, local residents continue to receive summonses despite the announcement of the completion of mobilization made by the head of the region. The governor of Kursk region Roman Starovoyt also announced that “partial mobilization and formation of territorial defense units” are finished. In addition, Starovoyt visited his constituents at assembly points and training grounds in Vladimir region. He described the state of a number of military bases he visited as “just terrible”. The governor of Vladimir region, accompanying Starovoyt, had to agree with his colleague. He admitted that the training ground is overcrowded and poorly equipped, and promised that the problem will be solved soon.
A first draft evasion criminal case has been filed in Russia. Lawyer Pavel Chikov wrote that a 32-year-old Penza resident was charged with a criminal offense under the article 328 of the Russian Criminal Code. A similar case is about to be filed in Moscow.
Yesterday we released a video made by the new draftees from Omsk, where they demanded a single lump sum payment. Today Omsk Governor, Alexander Burkov, stated that the region has no money for such payments. In his words "the Omsk region's budget is in a 13 billion rubles deficit”.
On the 4th of October another trainload of new conscripts left Krasnoyarsk's train station. The train consisted of 16 cars with 54 bunks in each car. The new conscripts from Blagoveshchensk had to pay for their own passage to their destination base.
New draftees are being trained in the village of Molkino (Krasnodar region of Russia). They are acquiring their new skills using BRDM-2MS wheeled armored carriers. New conscripts from the Rostov region have arrived in Donetsk and are in the process of receiving their instructions on the local training grounds. Another video from the so-called DPR volunteer militia is saying that the new arrivals are already being coached in combined arms warfare on training grounds in the Kherson region. They did not comment on how this bears on the Russian Defence Ministry statements about the new draftees being trained "in the rear" of the Special Operation's area of conflict. First confirmed communication about a Russian conscript POW has appeared on the Ukrainian "I want to live" channel. The news outlet published the recording of a 26-year-old Orsk resident, Mihail Kulikov, who was drafted on the 21st of October (2022). His identity was successfully verified by Verstka.
Another one deceased mobilized is known. A 41 years old man had a heart attack during training at a ground in Penza.
Pets suffer from the mobilization too. Lots of mobilized or departing have no one to leave their pets. There are details of it in Meduza online newspaper’s article.
Head of Krasnoarmeysk district of Kuban Yuri Vasin orders his subordinates to “voluntarily” donate daily earnings to a fund for assistance to the mobilized. Employees of the Chelyabinsk regional children’s library of Mayakovsky donated 2 sleeping bags and reader’s cards as amulets to the mobilized. As Dozhd TV channel found out, businessmen of Mari-El are forced to donate up to 1% of their profits to the mobilization being blackmailed with “reservation” for employees.
At the same time the mobilized are demonstrating body armor which is too small for everyone.
Blind from birth Dmitry Klyukvin received a mobilization notice in Moscow. He is going to appear in the military commissariat with a white cane he walks in the city with. 44-year-old Aleksey Sheshenin with cancer in remission was sent to war from Magadan. A mobilized in Krasnodar region who hasn’t served previously and hasn’t got a military training got a military occupational speciality without any teaching right in the military commissariat. 41-year-old father-of-two Pavel Starodub who doesn’t fit the announced criteria was mobilized in Khabarovsk. They don’t want to return him home. Citizen of Volgograd region Ruslan Sapegin who suffers from a hernia, osteochondrosis, stenocardia and hypertonia was sent to war as an infantry platoon commander. A 40-year-old father of 4 children was called up by Baymaksk military commissariat in Buryatia. Policemen and an officer of a military commissariat have come right to a public hearing in Vladimir district Saint Petersburg. They handed over the summons to 50-year-old head of the municipality Denis Tikhonenko and 40-year-old deputy Dmitry Prytkov who had never served in the army.
Residents of Serpukhov complain about mobilized people, who constantly drink, litter, and debauch. "It's scary to let children out in the street," said a local woman. And in the Karelian village of Sheltozero, according to Baza, they could not mobilize anyone because local men, resorting to the experience of previous generations, "went into the woods for cranberries."
"Meduza" (independent media outlet) discovered that the residents of Dagestan have a special legitimate opportunity to avoid participating in the war with Ukraine - an alternative service for indigenous peoples. Buryats, Oirats, Kalmyks, and Tuvinians who fled Russia were invited by the governor of Mongolia's Govi-Altai aimag (region) to his region. He promised to provide them with free accommodation for one month and help them learn the Mongolian language.
Pavel Chikov reports that cars left behind by Russians who left for Georgia near the border are being evacuated to penalty parking lots.
Since the beginning of the "partial" mobilization in Russia, the demand for cash has sharply increased, which led to a significant outflow of money from the banks.
On the morning of October 5, Rosgvardia (Federal National Guard Troops) officers cordoned the military commissariat in the Oktyabrsky district of Ulan-Ude. According to Baikal-Daily, a bomb threat was reported. Staff and civilians were evacuated and no dangerous devices or items were found during the examination. In the Moscow region, an unknown person tried to set fire to an uninhabited barrack on the territory of a military unit in the village of Zyuzino. Today it became known that on the night of September 25 in Krasnodar somebody tried to burn the military commissariat, but the arsonist was frightened away by Cossacks and policemen. A schoolgirl who threw Molotov cocktails at a military commissariat was arrested in Kazan. She is under house arrest until December 3.
A petition was launched on VKontakte (social network) to support the purchase of equipment for Russian army soldiers instead of Christmas decorations in Voronezh, which had more than 500,000 signatures by the time our summary was published. In Kaluga, the mayor himself decided not to spend money on a Christmas tree, but to spend it on the war.