The Russian Army

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The Russell Foundation received the following information, together with the introductory text below, in April 2022. We re-publish it here for information. The identity of the authors has been withheld for their personal security.

A huge number of Russian citizens are against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Many express their position through open letters and appeals or simply publications on social media ... More than 1,200,000 people have subscribed under the anti-war petition written by a human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov. More than 330,000 tweets with the hashtag #нетвойне (Russian for ‘no to war’) appeared on Twitter on one of the first days of the war (The Economist, Feb 28). Representatives of many professional communities ... have signed collective open letters. In interviews and social networks a large number of famous Russians ... have published statements against the war, and several print media outlets have come out with special covers ...

The war launched a wave of protests across Russia. Between February 24 and March 20 more than 15,000 people were detained at mass unsanctioned protests or solitary pickets in Russian cities (6,500 in Moscow, 4,100 in Saint Petersburg). 712 people were arrested and 27 were accused of felony on various pretexts. Human rights activists have reported mass violations of protesters’ rights, some protesters have been tortured by police. With the new laws, implemented on March 2, Russians can now go to jail for up to five years in prison for publicly condemning the ‘special operation’ and disseminating ‘deliberately false’ information about it. More than 40 Russian media outlets have been blocked or forced to stop working under the pressure, Facebook and Twitter have been also blocked in Russia. Some people who had signed public appeals against the war were fired from their jobs or received threats (OVD-Info, Mar 10). After the implementation of these laws, protests and anti-war statements became less widespread but did not stop.

Conscripts and contract soldiers in Russian army

In the Russian army there are both conscripts and contract soldiers.

Conscripts are those who were drafted into the army for a year. They are not professional soldiers. A contract soldier is a soldier who has signed a contract with Ministry of Defense and he receives a salary for his service (not less than 2 years).

At the beginning of the military operation, the Russian authorities claimed that only contract servicemen were participating in it.

On March 9 The Ministry of Defense reported that all the conscripts were withdrawn from the territory of Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense said it was taking all actions to return the captured conscripts:

‘“Unfortunately, several facts of the presence of conscripts in the units of the Russian Armed Forces participating in a special military operation on the territory of Ukraine have been discovered,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said’

Who becomes a contract soldier and how does it happen?

1. Theoretically, people can enter the contract military service after conscript service. But this is not the most common case.

People from depressed regions of the country, where there is no work for them, often enter into a contract, hoping that this will at least be their income.

2. University students can be trained in military centers, military training camps and receive the rank of reserve officer. Some students attend these way not to become a conscript.

Not all university students can and want to study in such military centers and become officers. This means that with the end of their studies, their deferment from conscription ends. They are subject to conscription after graduation. University graduates can sign a contract for military service instead of conscription.

Some men are attracted by the fact that they are promised that they will be able to live at home, and not in the barracks, that they will receive a salary for their service, and in general they are promised a lot.

But in practice, people often find themselves in the position of nearly the same as conscripts, but also for a longer period. (Conscription period is a year and a contract period is not less than 2 years. Then the contract can be renewed).

3. But most often the contract is signed by military conscripts who have already served for several months.

Relatives inform human rights activists about cases when conscripts were forced to sign a contract. Sometimes they were deceived, claiming that the contract would only be valid for two months (so much was left for the conscript until the end of his term of service)

Some reported that their relative was a conscript, he himself did not sign the contract, just like his colleagues. But then it turned out that they were on the lists as contractors. So the documents were falsified.

Personal Documents

Soldiers’ personal documents are a special issue. Very often, relatives of soldiers report that they do not have in their hands any documents that a soldier should have: neither a military ID, nor a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation

Phones in the army

In accordance with Russian law, a serviceman is prohibited from using smartphones on the territory of a military unit and training ground, and can only use phones without access to the Internet.

The law also provides that the commander of a military unit may set the regime for the use of telephones.

The vast majority of relatives say that the phones were collected from the soldiers. They are not allowed to use their phones. Sometimes the commander allows them to call relatives from his own ( commander’s) phone.

Sometimes soldiers hide the phone and call from it when the commander does not see.

Cases

I want to share a few stories that I learned about from the appeals of relatives.

1. A young man - a contract serviceman served in a military band as a musician.One day he was informed that he was going to the exercises. He was sent to the border with Ukraine. When they arrived, they were lined up and told that these were not exercises, but that they were participating in a military special operation. Now his family is trying to get him back.

2. There were appeals from contract servicemen who are on the border with Ukraine. Realizing that a war is already going on, they filed a report to terminate the contract, because, according to their conscience, they cannot participate in this.

3. The sister of a serviceman who was sent to Ukraine, called me. The sister herself lives in Europe/ Their Mom lives in the North of Russia.

Her brother served in the east of Russia - in Khabarovsk. They were told they were on their way to training.

All of them from the unit were sent west by train. On the train, conscripts were forced to sign a contract. Not conscripts, but contract soldiers arrived on the territory of Ukraine. From Ukraine, her brother called her mother several times from someone else’s phone. He confirmed that he was on the territory of Ukraine. The sister is afraid that their mother will not be able to send the necessary applications and explain to the brother how to act.

The situation is aggravated by the fact that this family has relatives - a cousin lives in Ukraine. At the same time, now his cousin’s family remains at home, and the brother himself is working in Russia (on a rotational basis). That is, in fact, in this war, brothers literally stand on different front lines

4. The soldier got lost from his unit. He didn’t know where to go. A local resident picked him up, gave him food, sheltered him in her house.

This woman called the mother of a soldier from her phone. They talked. This soldier does not have any documents in his hands. What his status is not clear. He wants to return home.

Human Rights Activists’ Advice to relatives

Human rights activists give recommendations to relatives on how to return a serviceman to Russia, as well as how to prevent sending him to participate in a military operation in Ukraine, if he is still in Russia.

The serviceman sends a report to the commander that he asks to terminate the contract with him and dismiss him. The chance of early termination of the contract in terms of legislation is very high, but so far we are not aware of such cases.

If they do not want to terminate the contract in the military unit, then the military personnel can “scare” the commander by the fact that relatives will make such cases public, both in Russian telegram channels and in foreign media service due to the fact that participation in a special operation on the territory of Ukraine is contrary to his convictions of conscience.

The commander will ignore this report

But at the same time, relatives should send appeals to the Ministry of Defense and other authorities that their relative is a soldier and that they know that he said that he could not continue to serve for reasons of conscience. Relatives should ask the Ministry of Defense to terminate the contract with him and fire him.

You need to understand that the command will put pressure on the soldier.

The family should prepare the service member to resist this pressure. Nothing could be worse than sending to war. Unfortunately, few parents and military personnel dare to act on the advice

Why activists working to protect the rights of military personnel are afraid to give interviews to foreign journalists?

In the fall of 2021, the FSB published an order - a list of information that is not itself classified as secret.

But if this information is used by foreign countries or citizens against the interests of Russia, then the person who collected, distributed and transmitted such information will be held criminally liable. This will be considered as treason. Such information includes:

- the state of the moral and psychological state of servicemen in military units

-material support in military units

- the state of health of military personnel

- information about violation of the law

Phones of human rights defenders are tapped by FSB officers. Therefore, human rights activists are afraid to give interviews to foreign journalists.

The information that I describe here was received by me either from relatives of military personnel, or from other human rights activists, whose names I do not name for their safety.