March 25, 2024

After Elections, Is It Time For Mobilizations?


After Elections, Is It Time For Mobilizations?
Russian soldiers handling military equipment.
Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, Wikimedia Commons.
 

On March 22, Russian independent news outlet Vyorstka revealed that the Ministry of Defense plans to draft 300,000 soldiers to encircle Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine. The timing isn't coincidental: according to the publication, the Kremlin has been waiting until the March presidential elections were over to begin a new wave of conscriptions.

Mass drafts are not popular in Russia. In September 2022, President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization, provoking over 700,000 persons to emigrate from the country. In September 2023, rumors swirled that Russia was preparing for a new wave of conscriptions. According to Vyorstka, authorities postponed drafting the mobilization until after the 2024 elections and asked pro-Kremlin media to avoid the subject.

The flow of people who voluntarily enlist to fight in Ukraine has significantly decreased. According to an unnamed Unified Contract Hiring Center employee in Moscow, quoted by Vyorstka, "Before, several hundred [recruits] came to the center, could be 500 to 600 (...) Now 20 to 30 new [recruits] arrive per day." Monthly salaries as high as  R805,000 ($8,273) have not incentivized potential recruits.

The first target of this alleged new wave is reservists, men who have signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense to serve as emergency manpower. They are active in the workforce but must complete military training twice a year. Despite having two million reservists, Russia has recently ramped up recruitment. A Trans-Baikal military officer told Vyorstka, "Something is coming (...) the ast [mass mobilization] the procedure was the same." A new center for conscripts is being set up in the Moscow Mayor's Office. In Leningrad Oblast, a military registration office pasted mobilization instructions onto reservists' identification cards. 

Conscripts from the "Mobilization 2.0" will allegedly be sent to Russia's southern border to free up more experienced personnel for the army's next objective: encircling Kharkiv. According to Vyorstka, a member of the Airborne Forces declared, "We are already going there, to Kharkiv." The publication noted that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been expecting a new attack in the eastern part of their country.

A military employee told Vyortska that 300,000 persons are expected to be called up on March 25, but no other source has confirmed the date. 

You Might Also Like

  • October 11, 2023

"Our Men Are Not Slaves; Bring Them Home"

Relatives of mobilized Russians are demanding the return of loved ones who have been at war for an extended period. Russian authorities are censoring their messages.
There Is Only Death There
  • September 28, 2023

There Is Only Death There

New statistics reveal that one in five mobilized Russians did not survive even two months in the Russian war in Ukraine.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955