The first full day of Russia’s first mobilization since the second world war sparked emotional clashes at troop centers and even signs of protest, while it appeared Russia could be considering far more than the 300,000 new conscripts claimed by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. A woman in a small village in the Zakamensky region of Buryatia in eastern Siberia said she first felt something was wrong when the dogs started barking around midnight. In a community of 450 people, the village chief walked from house to house, asking to distribute more than 20 draft notices. As men gathered before leaving the next morning, he said, some drank vodka while others hugged and told each other to stay safe. The women were crying and making the sign of the cross over the minibus that took them away. Activists in Buryatia said they did not understand why local officials were recruiting so aggressively. Photo: Ayuna Shagdurov “It’s not a partial mobilization, it’s a 100 percent mobilization,” said Alexandra Garmazhapova, president of the Free Buryatia Foundation, an activist group that has reported on the draft in the region. In the past day, she said, she and her colleagues had received and identified more than 3,000 reports of povestka, or draft documents, delivered to Buryatia in just 24 hours after Vladimir Putin announced the draft. Despite assurances that Russia would seek men who had recently served in the military and had combat experience, activists pointed to some cases of men in their 50s receiving conscription notices. One woman said a 52-year-old relative was handed a povestka shortly before the president announced the draft the day before. As the men gathered before departing Zakamensk, some drank vodka, while others hugged and told each other to stay safe. Photo: Ayuna Shagdurov Yanina Nimayeva, a journalist from Ulan-Ude in Buryatia, complained that her 38-year-old husband had received a notice even though he had never served in the army. “Don’t you have five children? they asked him. My husband laughed and said “yes, five children”. “Well, okay, wait for your drafts,” he said. “I understand we have a quota. Our republic must muster 4,000 soldiers,” Nimayeva said in a video addressed to the governor. “But certain parameters and principles of this partial mobilization must be respected.” During a television interview on Wednesday, Shoigu said Russia would target 300,000 draftees, mostly those with recent military experience. But the actual number in an order signed by Putin is secret. Some believe it could be much higher. Independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe reported that a source in the presidential administration said Russia was seeking to recruit more than 1 million people into the army. This report has not been confirmed by other news outlets. However, videos and anecdotal evidence from across Russia showed large streams taking place even in small towns, suggesting the numbers could be much higher. Many are in Russia’s ethnic minority republics, fueling a sense that the country relies disproportionately on ethnic minorities to provide its main fighting force in Ukraine. These areas have also suffered a disproportionate number of deaths and casualties from the war. Cities such as Zakamensk reported large numbers of men conscripted, adding to the sense that Russia’s “minority ethnic republics” are disproportionately relying on the war fighting in Ukraine. Photo: Ayuna Shagdurov In Neryungri, Sakha’s second-largest city, also known as Yakutia, video appeared to show dozens of men gathering at the Gornyak football stadium and being loaded onto buses bound for recruitment centers as family members waved tearful goodbyes. Many of the men appeared to be in their 30s and 40s. “They have already given draft notices to workers from Kolmar and Mechel,” two major mining companies operating in the area, said the activist who posted the video. “They were giving notices all night.” In Dagestan, a video emerged showing people angrily confronting a dissenting pro-military official at a recruitment center. The official said her son had been fighting in Ukraine since February. “You are fighting for the future of your children,” the woman, who was not identified, shouted to a crowd outside a municipal building. “We have no present, what future are you talking about?” a man from the crowd responded. Some men were reportedly given only an hour’s notice to pack up. Photo: Ayuna Shagdurov In Moscow, hundreds gathered to demonstrate in the center of Arbat Street after Putin announced the mobilization. According to information, the police started issuing summonses to those arrested at the protest. Among them was Artem Krieger, a young reporter for the Sota Vision news agency, who was arrested despite being there to cover the protests. “All the men, absolutely all of them, were given a notice of appeal,” Krieger said during an interview with TV Rain from the back of a police van. This included men who had never served in the military, he said, who now had to report to local recruiting centers. In a phone call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to confirm that police were handing out draft notices to detainees. “It’s not breaking the law,” he said. The scale of the mobilization across Russia is staggering. A video showed more than 100 potential lottery winners lining up behind an An-12 plane at an airfield in Khurba in the eastern Khabarovsk region. In Buryatia, activists said they did not understand why local officials were recruiting so aggressively, with students at local universities receiving notices while sitting in class. One idea was that the local governor wanted to fulfill his quotas “like a student before teacher Putin,” Garmazhapova said. Another theory, he said, was that it was being done to “punish Buryatia.”
