Mobilization in Russia for Oct. 7-9, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment
According to human rights defenders, at least 19 Russian regions—mainly in Central Russia and the Volga region, but also in the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East—have adopted digital draft notices. Legal experts believe the system may be operational in most of or even all of Russia's regions, but they currently lack confirmation from some federal subjects. Human rights defenders have recorded instances of men receiving a digital draft notice not just for conscription but also for military training or for a data check-up. In practice, however, when men report for a data checkup, authorities sometimes attempt to draft them into service.
The Pogranichny Kontrol [Border Control] Telegram channel featured another case of a travel ban involving a potential conscript, although the anonymous nature of the post makes its authenticity impossible to verify. According to the author, officials at the airport refused to issue a written confirmation regarding the denial to leave the country. This report follows a previously confirmed instance of such a ban.
Mikhail Petukhov, a children's karate coach from Krasnoyarsk who faces accusations of sexual violence, sexual intercourse with a minor, and lewd acts, accepted an offer from law enforcement officers to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense to avoid punishment.
A man accused of murdering a participant in the war against Ukraine has also gone to the front. According to investigators, a Sverdlovsk region resident, born in 2005, strangled war veteran Dmitry Zaykov during an altercation and buried his body. Less than two weeks later, the accused signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense. Authorities then suspended the investigation and released the man from the pre-trial detention center, after which he left for the war.
Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts
Sergey Smirnyagin, a 20-year-old conscript serving in the 80th Tank Regiment stationed in Chebarkul — a unit previously reported (1, 2) for forcing conscripts to sign contracts — stated that he too was coerced into signing a contract. Smirnyagin was drafted on June 20 and had recorded a video in advance declaring that he did not intend to sign a contract. However, on Oct. 2, the company commander, a junior lieutenant, and a sergeant threatened him with being sent to the guardhouse and beaten, forcing him to sign the contract. Immediately afterward, his phone was confiscated, and he was sent to the medical evaluation board and a psychologist. Following the signing, the young man was compelled to record a video “confirming” his supposedly voluntary consent to contract service. Later, the head of the unit’s personnel department began threatening the conscript with being sent either to a pre-trial detention center or to assault operations if he refused to comply.
Russian conscripts and contract soldiers will be instructed on “Russophobia as a threat to national security,” while officers will be trained to work with former convicts and to instill in soldiers “the views of Suvorov.” As discovered by the Vyorstka media outlet, such lessons are included in the 2026 military-political training curricula published in the Armeyskoe Obozrenie [Army Review] journal.
Anton Simonenko, a 41-year-old contract soldier from the Krasnoyarsk region who is forced to walk with a cane due to psoriasis, has been unable to travel to a hospital in the city of Novosibirsk despite having official documents confirming the need for treatment and a medical evaluation board. The command is holding him at a military unit in the city of Donetsk, claiming that his hospitalization documents are fake and that Simonenko is fit and will remain in service.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
A court in the city of Almaty sentenced former Wagner Group mercenary Timur Praliyev, who fought in Ukraine and Mali, to five years in prison. Praliyev was found guilty under the article concerning participation in foreign armed conflicts. He joined the group in the fall of 2022 and received a Russian passport the following year. He served as a signaler and took part in the assault on the town of Bakhmut. In 2024, the mercenary participated in combat operations in Mali. Over the course of his service, the Kazakh national was paid 4.1 million rubles [$50,200]. After leaving the group, Praliyev decided to emigrate to the United States. In January 2025, he was detained while attempting to illegally cross the Mexico–U.S. border. In May, he was deported from the United States to Kazakhstan, where he was taken into custody.
The Southern District Military Court sentenced 59-year-old Azov Brigade serviceman Vladimir Baranovsky to 18 years in a maximum-security penal colony. He was found guilty of participating in a terrorist organization and undergoing terrorist training. Baranovsky had been listed as missing in action since June 2022.
The "Kherson Regional Court," established by the Russian occupation authorities, sentenced Armenian citizen Armen Balyan to 12 years in a penal colony on charges of mercenaryism. According to the court, Balyan arrived in Ukraine in 2022 and joined the 124th Territorial Defense Brigade. He was later detained in 2024 at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport while attempting to enter Russia.
Two 20-year-old residents of Ulyanovsk were arrested and placed in a pre-trial detention center on charges of committing a terrorist act. According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), the young men set fire to a telecom equipment cabinet at a cell tower in Novoulyanovsk in exchange for payment and later "sent a video of the arson to anonymous handlers via a messaging app."
A 12-year-old schoolgirl from Saint Petersburg was detained for attempting to set fire to a cell tower. At the police station, she said that unknown individuals had contacted her online, promising 300,000 rubles [$3,680] for the arson. She reportedly planned to use the money to buy her brother a new tablet. On the evening of Oct. 8, she tried to ignite a tower in the Primorsky district but was stopped by an elderly man walking his dog, who then called the police. The police press release stated that "due to the arsonist’s age, the case materials will be forwarded to investigative authorities to determine whether to open a criminal case," adding that "similar acts have previously been classified by investigators as terrorism." Under Russian law, prosecution for terrorism or arson is possible starting at age 14, and for sabotage at 16.
The FSB has detained a young man born in 2001 in Naro-Fominsk, near Moscow, on suspicion of bombing a war veteran’s car. According to the agency, he "proactively established contact" with a Ukrainian intelligence officer and, "on instructions from handlers," built two improvised explosive devices. One was allegedly hidden in a cache in Moscow, while the other was used to target the vehicle of a serviceman "in the special military operation zone." Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] identified the incident as an arson attack that took place on Sept. 16. The suspect reportedly received 160,000 rubles [$1,960] for the act. The FSB also accuses him of collecting and passing information about a defense facility in the Altai region, and of setting fire to a car bearing the "special military operation" symbols. A criminal case has been opened on charges of a terrorist attack, and the suspect has been taken into custody.
A 17-year-old from Krasnoyarsk has been detained on charges of involvement in a terrorist organization. According to investigators, in April 2024, he contacted the Azov Brigade via a messenger app and offered to display its symbols in public. Between April and August 2025, he reportedly passed information to the Ukrainian military about the headquarters of a volunteer group supplying humanitarian aid to Russian forces. He also allegedly shared details about a relative serving in the war against Ukraine.
A criminal case on charges of a terrorist act has been opened against a 19-year-old resident of Chuvashia [Russia’s constituent republic] who voluntarily turned himself in and said that, under the influence of fraudsters, he had tried to set fire to a power station. Law enforcement officers claim that the young man was deceived into transferring 100,000 rubles (about $1,230) to the fraudsters and was then allegedly forced, under threat of criminal prosecution, to set fire to an electrical substation near the town of Kanash. The suspect’s name has not been disclosed.
In Rostov-on-Don, a court sentenced 37-year-old web developer Marat Barashkin from Krasnodar to seven years in a penal colony on charges of inciting terrorism and preparing to take part in the activities of a terrorist organization. According to investigators, in September 2022, Barashkin left a comment under an online post about the designation of the Vesna [Spring] youth democratic movement as extremist, allegedly calling for the arson of the St. Petersburg prosecutor’s office building. Three years later, according to law enforcement officers, Barashkin tried to join the Freedom of Russia Legion, provided his personal data to them, but was detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB) officers.
The Rostov Regional Court has sentenced 47-year-old Roman Devitsyn, a resident of the Rostov region, to 14 years in a penal colony for attempting to sabotage a railway infrastructure object. According to the Astra Telegram channel, Devitsyn was detained in May 2024 and accused of attempting to set fire to three relay cabinets on the railway. From 1996 to 1998, Devitsyn participated in the Chechen War, then worked as a criminal investigator in Moscow until 2010. He was known to criticize Vladimir Putin and the war against Ukraine on social media. In 2018, Devitsyn was charged with distributing pornography online and violating privacy. He was sentenced to a fine, which he did not pay.
Ruslan Shadiyev, a 49-year-old engineer and researcher at the Russian Federal Nuclear Center, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison on charges of treason and financing terrorism. According to the Kommersant daily newspaper, the reason for his prosecution was a transfer of 1,200 rubles [$15] in cryptocurrency to the Freedom of Russia Legion, the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] project. According to the newspaper, Shadiyev's family had sold property and "transferred several million rubles to support the special military operation in Ukraine in order to atone for the guilt."
The Krasnoyarsk Regional Court has sentenced 27-year-old Ivan Shcherbakov to 12 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of treason. The Kansk native was detained in September 2024, with formal treason charges filed a month and a half later. Shcherbakov was accused of making two money transfers to Ukraine.
In the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, a court in April 2024 sentenced a defendant identified only as Sh. to 5 years in a penal colony for treason — below the minimum threshold for this charge. The defendant was accused of providing assistance to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and offering Russian soldiers money to surrender with their weapons and equipment. Other details of the case remain undisclosed. The trial judge opted for a lenient sentence, citing the defendant's youth, active cooperation with the investigation, and the fact that he pleaded guilty to the charges and expressed remorse. However, upon review, the Supreme Court overturned this verdict as insufficiently substantiated. According to human rights advocates, this decision "once again demonstrates the harsh approach taken in this category of cases."
The 1st Western District Military Court has sentenced 28-year-old Semyon Zenkov, a native of Angarsk, to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of treason, participation in a terrorist community, terrorist organization activities, terrorist attack, and sabotage. According to investigators, in late February 2023, Zenkov, acting on instructions from foreign handlers from the Freedom of Russia Legion, set fire to a draft office and a pension fund office in the Leningrad region by throwing four Molotov cocktails at the buildings. Two months later, he set fire to a relay cabinet at the Kondakopshino transit stop. Zenkov received approximately 50,000 rubles ($610) for both arsons. According to Zenkov himself, he set fire to the relay cabinet to slow the movement of trains and freight cars transporting military equipment to the war. While in pre-trial detention center, Zenkov wrote an open letter calling himself "essentially a traitor" and expressing remorse for his actions.
A 39-year-old employee of a military plant in Veliky Novgorod, Nikita Puryshev, was also sentenced to 15 years in a maximum-security penal colony on charges of treason.
According to investigators, in May 2023 Puryshev "initiated" correspondence with Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (known as GUR). The following month, acting on alleged instructions, he monitored a local military unit and observed the activities of security agencies in Veliky Novgorod. Investigators claim he also intended to share information about the production at the defense enterprise where he worked. He was detained in July 2024.
In a video of his interrogation released by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Puryshev tells officers that he had been in contact via Telegram with the Ukrainian Hochu Zhit [I Want to Live] project. He said he later photographed the city’s police station and sent the project publicly available map data showing the location of a nearby military unit.
Children and Militarization
At a kindergarten in the city of Shuya, in the Ivanovo region, children were given a "Lesson of Courage." They were shown combat drones, allowed to handle a grenade launcher, and taught how to weave camouflage nets, make fabric cushions for hospitals, and sew balaclavas and helmet liners for soldiers fighting in the war.
In Kursk, students in cadet classes were told to craft "lanterns of gratitude" for North Korean soldiers, who had "liberated the Kursk region." Each lantern bore a message of thanks written in Korean. State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia] lawmaker Marina Kim promised to deliver the lanterns to Pyongyang.
Longreads
The Novaya Vkladka [New Tab] media outlet and the production studio ROMB published a report examining how members of Russia’s Indigenous minority groups are being sent to the front.