1/ Russia's police will be used to detain men en masse and force them to sign military contracts, according to a Russian source. It's claimed that rather than carrying out a 'traditional' mobilisation, the same effect will be achieved by exploiting pretexts to force men to join the army. ⬇️
2/ The chaotic Russian mobilisation of September 2022 is technically still in force, and Russia has since created a wide-ranging digital mobilisation system. This has recently been expanded to include comprehensive personal data about potential recruits. bsky.app
1/ Russian bloggers are upset that the Russian Ministry of Defence has drastically expanded military recruitment offices' access to citizens' personal data, including virtually everything about people's lives. They complain, with no apparent irony, that it's like '1984'. ⬇️
3/ At the same time, the police have emerged as a principal vehicle for 'quiet mobilisation'. Men are arrested for minor offences – even things as trivial as a broken indicator light – and taken to recruitment offices to be pressured into signing a military contract. 4/ Police officers are incentivised to act as 'headhunters' by being paid bonuses as high as 500,000 rubles ($5,700) for each man they recruit. Inevitably, this has led to abuses such as men being beaten or forced to drink alcohol until they sign a contract. 5/ As a result, many physically incapable people have been forcibly recruited into the army, including drunks, drug addicts, the homeless, and the elderly, with predictably harmful results for military readiness. bsky.app
1/ Following recent reports that Russia is recruiting alcoholics, drug addicts, and the elderly en masse to fight in Ukraine, a soldier on the front line near the Dobropillia salient reports that "marginalised individuals" are struggling to advance there. ⬇️
6/ In a recent example of attempted forced recruitment, a resident of the Samara region says that he was returning home with his family on a highway in the Ulyanovsk region. His 22-year-old son, who was driving, violated traffic rules and was stopped by a traffic police patrol. 7/ A police officer asked the driver to enter the patrol car under the pretext of "inspecting a video recording of the violation and filing a report." As soon as he got inside, the car sped off. The driver's father gave chase, eventually caught up, and pulled out his son. 8/ As the father said afterwards in a video published online, "I said, "Where are you taking him? You never know, you might take him to the woods somewhere, beat him up, force him to sign a contract, and that's it." "No, I'm not like that, I'm all business," like that." 9/ "Then I calmed down a bit, and we started talking about it. It turned out my fears weren't unfounded. So, I asked him a direct question. I said, "So," I said, "are they forcing you to find people, to recruit people to sign contracts?" 10/ "He said, "Yes, that happens. And here in the Ulyanovsk region, we get paid two hundred thousand for each contract soldier [$2,300]. And in your region," he said, "they pay five hundred [thousand]." 11/ Similar reports have emerged across Russia. Numerous regions have approved 'bounties' for those who recruit new soldiers. In only the last six weeks, residents of at least 17 Russian regions have complained of violent street raids and forced conscription. 12/ This has lead 'Novorossiya Militia Reports' to conclude that following this month's Russian elections, "There will be no official new mobilisation—instead, men will be detained en masse to be taken to military recruitment offices and pressured to sign a contract." 13/ "The federal centre is indeed not considering a new mobilisation in the traditional sense, but the army recruitment system could become significantly more stringent in the fall. 14/ "According to [a source], they are opting for a different model: men will be checked en masse on the streets, in the metro, near shopping centers, train stations, and businesses. 15/ "If there are problems with their military registration or documents, they will be taken to military recruitment offices to verify their information and undergo a commission. 16/ "There, they will be offered a contract, payments, a choice of specialism, and various service options. The main goal is not to register them as mobilised, but to actually get them to sign a contract. 17/ "The source claims that this legally allows the current rhetoric to continue: there is no new mobilisation, the army is being filled by volunteers. 18/ "At the same time, the recruitment method itself is becoming increasingly coercive and may outwardly resemble the practice of Ukrainian TCCs [Territorial Centres of Recruitment and Social Support]. 19/ "This is why the autumn campaign may not look like the 2022-style mobilisation, but rather like constant inspections, deliveries to military registration and enlistment offices, and individual contracting." Sources: 🔹 t.me 🔹 svoboda.org 🔹 t.me