Mobilization in Russia for Sept. 2-4, 2025 CIT Volunteer Summary
Army Recruitment
The fall conscription campaign in the Leningrad region will be conducted using an "electronic database," said the region’s deputy governor for security Mikhail Ilyin. He did not specify whether the "electronic database" referred to the Unified Military Register.
Governor of Bashkortostan [Russia's constituent republic] Radiy Khabirov extended the regional sign-up bonus of 1 million rubles [$12,400] for signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense until Sept. 30. The previous decree was valid until Aug. 31. From January to June, the republic had been paying 1.6 million rubles [$19,800] for signing a contract, but later the authorities reduced the amount.
Residents of the Kishertsky district of the Perm region [Russia’s federal subject] will now receive an additional 100,000 rubles [$1,240] for signing a contract with the MoD, on top of the regional payment of 1.5 million rubles [$18,500] and 400,000 rubles [$4,940] from the federal government. The payments will be provided from the reserve fund of the local administration. A similar additional payment was previously introduced in the town of Cherdyn.
Vasily Zharkov, a 29-year-old SEO agency owner, said that within a year he managed to push the Volunteer Center website—a recruitment platform for volunteer fighters in the war with Ukraine—into the top search results. According to him, the site receives 12,500 applications per month, of which 7,500 allegedly result in contracts with the MoD. If Zharkov’s claims are accurate, his platform accounts for up to a quarter of all new contract soldiers. SEO experts, however, view the reported figures as highly unlikely. Zharkov maintains that the cost of one application does not exceed 16 rubles [$0.20], while his company earns 350,000 rubles [$4,330] per month for promoting the site.
In the Moscow region, 61-year-old Aleksandr Stepanov, accused of murdering tow truck driver Maksim Lagunov, avoided trial by going to war. The crime occurred on Jan. 27 on the M-2 highway between Chekhov and Podolsk. Stepanov, attempting to bypass traffic on the shoulder, got into a dispute with 28-year-old Lagunov, who refused to let his car pass. During the altercation, Stepanov first assaulted Lagunov, then returned and stabbed him. Lagunov died en route to the hospital. In February, Stepanov was placed on the wanted list; on March 4 he surrendered to police and confessed to the murder. But on March 17, Lagunov’s family was informed that the case had been suspended after Stepanov signed a contract with the MoD and was deployed to the frontline. Lagunov left behind a newborn son and the adopted daughter of his common-law wife.
Former head of Moscow’s Investigative Committee office Aleksandr Drymanov, who was sentenced in 2020 to 12 years in a maximum security penal colony for accepting a $1 million bribe, has gone to war. In August 2024, he was released on medical grounds after being diagnosed with cancer. Following surgery, the illness was reportedly cured. According to his lawyer, while still in prison Drymanov had asked to be sent to fight in the "special military operation" as a private soldier, but the request was denied. When exactly he was deployed to the frontline remains unclear.
Mobilized Soldiers, Contract Soldiers and Conscripts
Out of the 50 men who left the village of Sedanka in Kamchatka to join the war effort, 12 have been killed and five are missing in action. This information was reported by the Sibir.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet, citing a source close to local authorities. The village was previously awarded the title of "Village of Military Valor" "for its merits in the special military operation." All residents who went to war did so as volunteer fighters, since the Koryaks, an indigenous minority, were not subject to mobilization. The total population of Sedanka is 457 people, with 224 actually residing there. Among them, 67 are men over the age of 18.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings and Incidents
A court has sentenced a participant in the war from the Tyumen region to 11 years in a maximum security penal colony for murdering his wife out of jealousy. He was charged with causing grievous bodily harm resulting in death by negligence. After his arrest, the serviceman denied using violence against his wife. He did not plead guilty in court and has since attempted to appeal the verdict.
At the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School, 35-year-old Captain Aleksandr Fedyanin was found dead. His widow Anna said her husband's body was discovered Aug. 30 in his own bed with multiple stab wounds, though investigators are considering suicide as a possibility. The woman claims her husband had been threatened by fellow officers. Anna stated she had pushed for a murder case to be opened and that "it has already been initiated."
A District Military Court has found four Ukrainian soldiers captured in the Bryansk region guilty of terrorist attacks, preparing terrorist attacks, illegally crossing the border and illegally possessing explosives. Lieutenant Colonel Andriy Antonenko received 28 years, Sergeant Oleksiy Mazurenko got 27 years, while Captain Andriy Kulish and Junior Lieutenant Denys Tkachenko each received 26 years. According to investigators, members of a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group planted mines on railways, power lines and oil storage facilities deep inside Russian territory, and in August 2023 deployed drones near the Shaykovka military airfield in the Kaluga region, home to long-range bombers. Antonenko's lawyer Maria Eismont, insisted on prisoner of war status and demanded the prosecution be dropped, arguing that the defendants were not charged with war crimes and were protected from other charges by combatant immunity. Defense attorneys for the other defendants requested the charges be reclassified as sabotage. In their final statements, as reported by Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet], the service members maintained their innocence, noting that no one was harmed by their actions, including Russian soldiers.
The Southern District Military Court has sentenced Ukrainian POW Sergey Yatskov to 20 years of imprisonment for serving in the Battalion named for Noman Çelebicihan, which is recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia. He was found guilty of undergoing training for terrorist activities and participating in the activities of a terrorist organization.
A court in the Khanty-Mansi autonomous region–Yugra [Russia's federal subject] has found five relatives of conscripts guilty of giving bribes in exchange for their relatives being declared unfit or partially fit for military service (service fitness category "D" and service fitness category "V"). According to the prosecution, from 2021 to 2022 the defendants, through intermediaries, transferred money to the chair and members of the military medical board of the draft office in exchange for a favorable decision. The court fined each of the accused from 500,000 rubles [$6,180] to 2 million rubles [$24,700]. Previously, three doctors and two intermediaries involved in receiving the bribes had been convicted. The case against the former chair of the board, accused of 22 counts of receiving bribes, is still under consideration.
Authorities in the Moscow region have detained a 17-year-old boy suspected of setting fire to a relay cabinet on a railway section between the Gzhel and Ovrashki stations on Sept. 1. The teenager admitted to agreeing to commit arson in exchange for a payment of 40,000 rubles [$490] from anonymous handlers who contacted him through a messaging app. He bought gasoline, set the cabinet ablaze and sent a video report to the client—but never received the money. The teenager has been charged under the article for an act of terror and has been placed in a pre-trial detention center.
The regional court in Krasnodar has sentenced 44-year-old Mikhail Laty to nine years in prison on charges of attempted sabotage. According to investigators, in February 2025, Laty agreed to carry out an assignment from an unidentified contact in a messaging app for 30,000 rubles [$370] and tried to set fire to a relay cabinet. The attempt caused no damage—high humidity prevented the flames from spreading—and Laty was apprehended by officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB).
The Zaporizhzhia regional occupation "court" has sentenced 34-year-old Nikolay Dzhos, a resident of the Tokmak district, to life imprisonment on charges of sabotage, espionage and participation in a sabotage community. According to the prosecution, in May 2023 Dzhos contacted an acquaintance via Telegram who was serving in the Ukrainian army and "took on the obligation to collect and transmit information" about the personnel, armored vehicles and military facilities of the Russian army "for the purpose of subsequent strikes by the Armed Forces of Ukraine." As a result of his actions, the Ukrainian army allegedly launched a HIMARS MLRS strike on Russian positions, destroying an anti-aircraft missile system and killing three Russian servicemen.
The Southern District Military Court has sentenced Ukrainian citizen 27-year-old Vladyslav Hershon to 15 years in prison on charges of espionage, participation in a terrorist organization and committing a terrorist attack. The case was heard behind closed doors. Hershon was one of the administrators of the Telegram channel "Melitopol is Ukraine." According to investigators, the administrators, acting on instructions from the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), asked subscribers to report concentrations of Russian soldiers and equipment and then passed the information on to Ukrainian intelligence. Mediazona reported that Hershon, along with other administrators, was accused of helping direct missile strikes on the Melitopol college building, which housed Rosgvardia [the Russian National Guard] and FSB offices. On March 27, 2023, the AFU targeted the building with HIMARS MLRS. According to Mediazona, no one inside was injured, as law enforcement evacuated officers immediately after a missile alert was declared in the city. The FSB reported the arrests of administrators of local Telegram channels in occupied Melitopol at the end of October 2023, but in reality, the young man had been detained two months earlier. Recently, a "court" in Melitopol also sentenced Heorhiy Levchenko, the administrator of another Telegram channel, RIA-Melitopol, to 16 years in prison on charges of treason and public incitement to extremism.
The FSB has reported the detention of a Ukrainian citizen in the occupied Kherson region, accusing him of passing the coordinates of Russian military personnel and equipment to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). In a video released by Izvestia [The News, a Russian pro-Kremlin daily broadsheet newspaper and a news channel], the detainee claims that an SBU officer contacted him via WhatsApp in 2022 and offered financial compensation in exchange for location data on Russian forces. He states that he agreed to the proposal.
The 2nd Western District Military Court has sentenced Moscow resident Andrey Yevseyev to 12 years in a maximum security penal colony. He was convicted of preparing an act of terror, illegal possession and manufacture of explosives and weapons, battery and trafficking in prohibited materials. The prosecution had requested a 14-year sentence. Yevseyev, a longtime driver-forwarder for the chemical company Mosreaktiv, was initially detained in June 2024 after receiving 10 days of administrative arrest for wearing a T-shirt bearing a trident and the slogan "Slava Ukraini" [Glory to Ukraine]—symbols deemed prohibited by Russian authorities. Following his disclosure of pro-Ukrainian views during police questioning, his residence was searched. Investigators claim to have seized 14 drones, bags of saltpeter, a bottle of kerosene, four underbarrel grenade launcher rounds, two revolvers, a Makarov pistol with a magazine, 79 cartridges and a metal machine tool. Photographs of strategic sites in Moscow, including power plants and schools, were also confiscated. In court, Yevseyev partially admitted guilt, stating that the aerial photographs were for personal use and that his visits to so-called extremist websites were driven by curiosity.
Children and Militarization
Some kindergartens in the Perm region are now teaching children how to operate drones, according to posts on the schools’ social media accounts. The posts also promote contract military service.
Miscellaneous
AI-generated "farewell" videos are gaining popularity among families of soldiers killed in the war. In these videos, a soldier embraces a relative or romantic partner before disappearing into the sky, fading away or turning into a bird. Each post includes a short biography of the deceased. The cost of creating such a video ranges from 1,500 to 4,000 rubles [$19-$49]. For an additional 3,000-4,000 rubles [$37-$49], the video can be voiced in the real voice of the killed soldier.
Longreads
The Ne Norma [Not a Norm] Telegram channel spoke with three teachers at a prestigious St. Petersburg school about how education has changed during the war—and what the teachers themselves think of these shifts.