Mobilization in Russia for Sept. 16-17, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary
Authorities and Legislation
"Mobilization is not needed to increase the army’s personnel count," declared Andrey Kartapolov, Chairman of the Defense Committee of the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia]. Commenting on the increase of the authorized strength of the Russian Armed Forces by 180,000 troops, Kartapolov added that their "ranks will be filled with contract soldiers." Dara Massicot, a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, noted that maintaining an army of 1.5 million military personnel will cost more than 3 trillion rubles [$33 billion] per annum, roughly double pre-war spending.
Amendments, which Kartapolov proposed to allow governors to create their own armed "regional units," have been endorsed by the Government Legislative Commission. Members of these units will be equated with volunteer militia members, but unlike the latter, they will be allowed to carry assault weapons. The original bill was passed in August 2023. It granted governors the right, during wartime, mobilization or martial law, to establish state unitary enterprises [type of business entity] to protect state borders and combat sabotage and reconnaissance groups and illegal armed formations. However, members of these units may only carry smooth bore weapons. Such "enterprises" have been created in the Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk regions, as well as in Sevastopol.
The Irkutsk region plans to supply at least six volunteer fighters per day until the end of the year, reports the Lyudi Baikala [People of Baikal] independent media outlet, which analyzed government procurement contracts for food supplies for military personnel passing through the region’s recruitment center. According to the documents, authorities expect to provide at least 666 individuals with meals between Sept. 9 and Dec. 31, 2024.
Aleksey Kondratyev, a veteran of the "special military operation" and a participant in the Time of Heroes presidential personnel development program has become a senator representing the Kursk region as reported by the region’s governor Aleksey Smirnov. According to Smirnov, Kondratyev has been evacuating civilians from the Kursk region since the first day the Armed Forces of Ukraine entered the region. Kondratyev previously served as a senator between 2015 and 2022, when he represented the Tambov region. Before that, he headed the Tambov administration. Prior to that, he served in the Russian Airborne Troops and in the GRU [Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation]. He has been fighting in Ukraine as a volunteer since 2022.
Authorities and Relatives of Mobilized Soldiers
Wives of mobilized soldiers have announced a new rally demanding their husbands be brought back home. Activist Paulina Safronova published a 4-minute video on her Telegram channel in which an anonymous young woman announces that the action will take place on Spet. 21, the second anniversary of the mobilization in Russia. The stated goal of the rally is to contact the defense minister and bring men back from the "special military operation" zone. The last time the wives marched to the Ministry of Defense building was on July 8, when they dispersed after being promised a meeting with Russia's Minister of Defense Andrey Belousov. The meeting never took place.
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
As the Agentstvo [Agency] independent media outlet pointed out, two days after the announcement of the beginning of the experiment of sending out summonses, the website for sending out electronic summonses to persons liable for military service has not yet started operations. On Friday, Sept. 13, it was announced that an experiment of sending out electronic summonses in three regions—Mari El [Russia’s constituent republic], the Sakhalin region and the Ryazan region—would commence on Sept. 15. Conscripts were supposed to receive their summonses in their personal accounts on the website https://реестрповесток.рф. However, as of Sept. 16, the site wasn’t operational. Artyom Klyga, an activist with the Movement of Conscientious Objectors, a human rights organization supporting those who refuse to perform military service, predicts that Russian authorities will nevertheless be able to launch the site by the Nov. 1 deadline, at least in some regions.
Ivan Pivovarov, former police officer and son of the deputy governor of the Saratov region, plans to join the war effort in Ukraine. It appears that Pivovarov is attempting to avoid punishment, as he is currently on trial for animal cruelty and the intentional destruction of property.
The Federal Penitentiary Service has been organizing meetings where war participants speak to inmates in an effort to persuade them to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense. One such meeting took place in the Krasnoyarsk region's penal colony 31.
Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers
The list of mobilized soldiers killed in the war has been updated to include Igor Morozov from the Krasnodar region and Maksim Oslanus from the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region—Yugra [Russia's federal subject].
During a recent POW exchange, five conscripts from the Perm region, aged 19 to 23, returned home. They are Andrey Aleynikov, Dmitry Dyudelev, Denis Ketov, Yury Maltsev, and Vladislav Patrakeev. All of them were captured during the AFU offensive in the Kursk region.
The Idite Lesom! [Flee through the woods/Get lost you all] Telegram channel shared the story of a conscript serving in the Primorsky region [Russia's federal subject]. Despite suffering from panic attacks and a high fever, the young man is being sent to the Kursk region.
In Russia's constituent republic of Sakha (Yakutia), a mobilized single father faces the threat of losing his parental rights and being sent back to the war. Sergey Egorov, who was forced to leave the frontline on family leave, is being threatened with compulsory return to the frontline for refusing to leave his stepdaughter alone after her mother was murdered. Egorov has yet to receive an official discharge, while the man who killed his wife signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense and left the penal colony to fight in Ukraine.
Mobilized soldiers of the repair and recovery company of the 1442nd Regiment recorded an appeal to the governor of the Altai region [Russia’s federal subject], asking for help. According to them, soldiers who lack skills in handling weapons or providing medical assistance are being prepared for an assault. They were previously promised they would remain in the rear, but due to heavy losses on the frontline, the men are now simply being used to "plug the gaps."
Thirty-year-old soldier Oleg Budnichenko described his unlawful detention and the horrific conditions in the isolation cell. His commander had granted him leave to meet with his wife, after which he returned on time and sober. Despite this, Senior Lieutenant Andrey Sidelnikov placed Budnichenko in isolation without explanation. Senior Sergeant Aleksandr Abramov is being held there with him. The command forbade giving them food and water for two days—both men are surviving only thanks to fellow soldiers who, risking detention themselves, bring them food.
Soldiers from the 54th Motorized Rifle Regiment have recorded an appeal, claiming that their battalion commander, Major Oganes Petrosyan, ordered them on a suicidal mission and threatened to "erase" them if they survived. Two soldiers fled the unit after learning of the order, while a third remained and was killed. The surviving soldiers say they reported the incident to law enforcement officers and also revealed cases of extortion and beatings within the unit. This is not the first time pro-Russian war supporters have complained about the command of the 54th Regiment and Major Petrosyan.
In a separate incident, Rafail Bakhteev, a soldier from the 239th Tank Regiment of the 90th Tank Division, recorded a video from a pit where he and other soldiers were illegally being held without food or water. Bakhteev stated that commanders regularly abuse, beat, and humiliate their subordinates, throwing them into pits and threatening them with "erasure." He also reported that soldiers are sent on assault missions with no chance of survival.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
In Astrakhan, Denis Salmin, a father of five children aged between 4 and 14, was sentenced to six and a half years in a penal colony for going AWOL. The 37-year-old Salmin signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense in August 2023. While stationed at forward positions in the occupied territories of Donetsk region, Salmin fled home in December, citing fear for his life as the reason for his desertion.
The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation refused to consider the appeal of Vladislav Bogdanov, a contract soldier who had not been discharged from service after the expiration of his contract due to the announced mobilization. On Sept. 18, 2022, Bogdanov's contract expired, but four months later, he had still not been removed from the personnel lists. As a result, he applied for a discharge from military service, but his application was rejected. The court ruled that during the partial mobilization, the regulations governing contract-based military service cannot be regarded as violating citizens' constitutional rights.
In Arkhangelsk, police have detained the vice-rector and head of the admissions committee of the Northern (Arctic) Federal University for trying to help students avoid being drafted into the war. A criminal case was initiated against Lyudmila Morozova and Vyacheslav Parshin on charges of official forgery and abuse of power. According to investigators, in September 2022, after the admissions campaign had ended, Parshin and Morozova enrolled several students in postgraduate studies without exams, backdating their enrollment. The Federal Security Service (FSB) believes that by doing so, the university officials illegally helped students avoid mobilization.
It became known that in Borovsk, Kaluga region, 17-year-old student Ilya Ovchinnikov was detainedin July in connection with an attempt to set fire to a relay cabinet. A criminal case was initiated against the young man for an act of terror, and he was taken into custody. The reason for initiating the case was an attempt to set fire to the relay cabinet on the railway section between Balabanovo and Obninskoye stations, which occurred back in August 2023. According to the Astra Telegram channel, the relay cabinet did not catch fire, and there were no train delays.
Two residents of Saint Petersburg were arrested while attempting to travel to Ukraine to join the "Russian Volunteer Corps." They were detained while trying to leave for Ukraine via Georgia. A criminal case has been opened against them on charges of participation in a terrorist organization.
During an arrest operation, a 40-year-old man was shot dead, while he was allegedly attempting to plant an improvised explosive device (IED) under the car of a senior defense industry official in the Sverdlovsk region. The FSB identified him as a "Ukrainian military intelligence agent." According to the FSB, the man offered armed resistance while placing the IED in a cache and was subsequently killed. As reported by the Agentstvo media outlet, this is at least the tenth person killed by the FSB during the arrest of a person suspected of preparing an act of terror in the interests of Ukrainian intelligence services.
An appellate court has replaced the initial sentence of forced labor for Moscow resident Yury Kokhovets with a prison term in a penal colony. Kokhovets had been sentenced to five years of forced labor in April for participating in a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty public poll on the war in Ukraine. Instead, he will serve the same five-year term in a penal colony. He was accused of "spreading false information about the Russian military" after stating that "the government is bombing shopping malls" in Ukraine and that Russia was involved in the killing of civilians in Bucha. In his final statement, Kokhovets said he was unaware of the criminal article in question and did not expect the video to be published. He was taken into custody in the courtroom.
The lawyer of Mikhail Dariy, who was sentenced to 22 years in a maximum security penal colony for creating an anti-war chat that allegedly "promoted terrorism among Russian youth" and plotted a terrorist attack at Sheremetyevo Airport, reported that her client was tortured by FSB officers.
A court in the Kurgan region sentenced 51-year-old Sergey Kharin, a driver for the local administration, to one and a half years of forced labor for obstructing the exercise of electoral rights. On March 15, Kharin poured green dye into a ballot box at a polling station.
Since the beginning of 2024, the Investigative Committee has opened 497 criminal cases related to offenses in the defense industry and state defense procurement, according to Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia. Most of these cases are being investigated in Moscow and the Moscow region, Udmurtia [Russia's constituent republic], and the Tula and Samara regions. The committee noted that in all of 2023, nearly 30% fewer such crimes were investigated compared to the first eight months of 2024—357 cases versus 497.
Children and Educational System
The Mozhem Ob'yasnit [We Can Explain] Telegram channel came across several applications related to the war on the website for presidential grants. For example, the project by the organization "Generation of the Future" proposes to create a "Museum on the Wheels" for 4.3 million rubles [$47,500] which would tell teenagers in the occupied territories about Russia's military glory. Another project, “Along the Roads of Great Feat,” proposes a program of "unique rehabilitation methods for children and teenagers with disabilities" through "patriotic education."
Longreads
The number of registered HIV cases in the Russian Army sharply increased after the start of the war with Ukraine. The peak numbers were recorded after the start of mobilization.This was reported in an article by doctors from the Ministry of Defense, and published in the "Military Medical Journal," as discovered by the Vyorstka media outlet. By the end of 2023, HIV was detected among military personnel approximately 20% more frequently than before the war. The main reason for this is the recruitment of people into the army who had not undergone HIV screening.
Novaya Gazeta [independent Russian newspaper] released a report on how refugees who fled due to the advance of the AFU are living in the Kursk region. Meanwhile, their colleagues from Novaya Gazeta Europe [European edition of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta] interviewed a convict, who went to war but soon deserted from the frontline.