Mobilization in Russia for Sept. 2-3, 2024 CIT Volunteer Summary

Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising

The Pervy Otdel [First Department] human rights project reports that Aleksandr Matkheev, a 26-year-old resident of Buryatia [Russia’s constituent republic] suffering from a mental disorder, who was sentenced last April to 10 years in a penal colony for attempting to join the "Freedom of Russia Legion," is planning to join the war against Ukraine as a cook. The project’s legal experts note, however, that Russian citizens convicted of treason cannot legally be released to fight in the war. Earlier, the independent Russian media outlet Mediazona reported in detail on the case against Matkheev, who likely fell victim to a frame-up by law enforcement officials.

Mobilized Soldiers, Volunteer Fighters and Contract Soldiers

The Omsk Civil Association report that two local conscripts, twins Dmitry and Konstantin Reshka, have been killed in the Kursk region. Residents of their home village are currently collecting funds for the funeral.

Alina Bolvinova, the widow of a soldier who served in the 25th Motorized Rifle Brigade, accused its commander, Colonel Aleksey Ksenofontov, of sending his subordinates on a suicide mission while under the influence of alcohol. Her husband Mikhail Shchebetun had enlisted on Jan. 31, 2024 and, after 10 days of training, joined the 25th Brigade. She lost contact with him on Feb. 14. In April, fellow soldiers informed Bolvinova of her husband’s death in an assault near the town of Avdiivka on March 9. However, she has not receivedhis death certificate to this day. Members of Shchebetun’s unit later recounted how the brigade’s commander got drunk on March 8 and, "being in a bad mood," ordered his subordinates on a deadly assault. According to the wife of another contract soldier, Ksenofontov watched with glee as Ukrainian forces crushed the fighters alive with tanks and bombarded them with drones. Bolvinova called on Putin to punish the brigade commander, but learned in April that he had been awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation from a piece recorded by propagandist Vladimir Solvyev. The relatives of the soldiers killed or missing in action under Ksenofontov’s command, left dozens of comments accusing him under the video.

A journalist from the Sibir.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet spoke with Aleksey Kulyaev, a mobilized soldier from the city of Novosibirsk who was chained to a tree by his commanders for demanding respectful treatment. Kulyaev said that after returning from leave, he had a conflict with a drunk colonel. The colonel ordered Kulyaev to be put on a chain and beaten. The man was chained for five days without food. After a week, he was released. Meanwhile, Kulyaev's wife did not receive a response to complaints filed with various agencies.

A serviceman from Russia's constituent republic of Sakha (Yakutia) recorded a video from Ukraine, in which he described how he was the only survivor after an assault. According to the soldier, there were 15 assault troops in his group, all of whom were killed during the assault, while he himself was severely wounded in the arm.

Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents

The murder of 11-year-old Anastasia Yakina from the city of Nizhny Tagil is suspected to have been committed by a war participant. On Aug. 31, the girl, whose mother had recently died of cancer, asked her father's permission to go for a walk but did not return home. The father sought help from the police and volunteers, and later a criminal case was opened under the murder article. After four days of active search, the girl's body was found in the basement of the house where she lived. On Sept. 3, Vladimir Aleksandrov, a neighbor who had returned from the war, was detained on suspicion of murder. According to the E1.ru publication, he had been previously convicted—in 2020 he was found guilty in a case of rape and sexual violence. According to the Vot Tak [Like This] media outlet, Aleksandrov had been convicted five times. The man had recently returned from the war and was planning to go back to the frontline. After the murder, he went to Moscow, where the pay for signing a contract is higher than in the regions, and was detained there.

Kamil Kasimov, a Russian contract soldier who was detained in Kazakhstan, has been sentenced to six years in a penal colony on charges of desertion. In July 2023, he fled from the Russian Army to avoid participating in the war with Ukraine. However, in April 2024, he was detained by Russian military investigators at his workplace in Astana and deported to Russia.

A court in Kabardino-Balkaria [Russia’s constituent republic] has partially granted a lawsuit filed by local resident Irina Ganokova seeking compensation from the Ministry of Defense for the death of her son in the Kursk region. According to case materials, her son was deployed to the Kursk region in February 2023, and on April 4, one of his fellow soldiers, a conscript, accidentally shot him with an assault rifle. As a result, he died from the wound. The mother of the deceased demanded a 15 million rubles [$166,900] compensation, but the court awarded her 1.5 million rubles [$16,700].

In Nizhny Novgorod, Ekaterina Babayeva, a 49-year-old mother of multiple children, has been sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony for attempting to set fire to a draft office. Initially, phone scammers forced her to take out a 500,000 ruble [$5,560] loan to repay a supposed "debt," and then began to blackmail her. The scammers eventually convinced Babayeva and her son Maksim to make a Molotov cocktail and throw it at the wall of the local draft office. She was later detained, and in July 2024, a court found her guilty of committing a terrorist attack and involving a minor in a grave crime. Her son was sentenced to four and a half years of imprisonment. Babayeva has three other sons: the eldest is in a penal colony for robbery, the second is an officer in the Russian Airborne Troops fighting in Ukraine. The fourth, an eight-year-old, was placed in an orphanage after his mother's arrest. The Vyorstka media outlet detailed the story of Babayeva and her family.

Aleksandr Shiplyuk, the 57-year-old head of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has been sentenced to 15 years in a penal colony for treason by the Moscow City Court. The laboratory he headed was engaged in hypersonic technologies. It is unknown what exactly Shiplyuk was charged with. According to Reuters, the scientist was accused of disclosing classified information to China at a scientific conference in 2017. Shiplyuk himself asserted that the information in question was not classified and was publicly accessible on the Internet. His son Mikhail informed BBC News Russian that the scientist did not plead guilty. BBC has tallied up at least 12 Russian scientists working on hypersonics have been arrested by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on charges of treason over the past six years.

The FSB has initiated a criminal case on charges of attempted treason against a 30-year-old Russian woman who attempted to cross the border in the Belgorod region with the intention of joining the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to investigators, the woman contacted a representative of a Ukrainian paramilitary formation via the Internet and arranged to cross the border but was detained.

A military court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced Oleksandr Lyubas, a Ukrainian serviceman, to 20 years in prison. He was captured after a sabotage operation in the Russian-annexed Crimea in the fall of 2023. The special forces soldier of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine was tried on charges of illegal border crossing, possession and smuggling of weapons, an act of terror, and undergoing training for terrorist activities.

Nineteen-year-old Kevin Lik, pardoned by Vladimir Putin in a prisoner exchange on Aug. 1, 2024, reported that his criminal record has not yet been cleared. According to a certificate from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there is no information about his release or the termination of criminal prosecution. Lik noted that, formally, he remains a convicted person. By law, a conviction can be expunged in connection with an act of pardon, but this has not happened in his case.

A court fined 63-year-old pensioner Rita Shumayeva from Arkhangelsk 100,000 rubles [$1,110] for reposting a film about the mobilized soldiers’ wives movement. She was found guilty of repeatedly discrediting the Armed Forces and pleaded guilty. The prosecution initially requested a larger fine of 160,000 rubles [$1,780]. Her equipment, seized during a search, was also confiscated.

According to Vyorstka, there has been a sharp increase in road accident fatalities in the southern regions of Russia. The State Inspectorate for Road Traffic Safety and experts attribute the rise in deaths to an increase in cargo and tourist traffic heading south, partly due to airport closures after the start of the war. The movement of military vehicles has further exacerbated the situation—in the Belgorod region, road fatalities have increased by one and a half times compared to the same period in 2021.

Assistance

The Russian Loktar project has announced the creation of a "combat messenger" for the Russian military. The unnamed software features built-in maps and a messaging system. The project creators claim that the entire system's operation is fully "decentralized." The software can be installed on Gran and Shorokh systems, as well as on third-party devices.

Children and Educational System

Russian schools will be able to spend a record 1,300 hours out of total 11,000 hours during the academic year on propaganda, according to calculations by the Agentstvo [Agency] independent media outlet. For the first time, the number of academic hours that teachers must also spend on propagating Kremlin ideas will exceed 12% of all mandatory lessons.

Longreads

Relatives of contract soldiers recruited from Russian prisons for the war in the 80th Motor Rifle Arctic Brigade told the Okno media outlet that the unit, created in 2014 to protect the Arctic, has been almost completely destroyed in the war in Ukraine.