In 20 Russian regions since the spring, more than 40 detachments with “volunteers” have been created, who are promised to be paid from 130 to 300 thousand rubles for participating in the war with Ukraine. Writes about this "Kommersant".
The publication clarifies that in August "volunteer detachments" were formed in St. Petersburg ("Kronstadt", "Neva" and "Pavlovsk"), which are allegedly staffed "exclusively by residents of St. Petersburg." Information about the recruitment of volunteers is published in the media and social networks of the authorities, all of them are sent to the zones of the “special operation”.
A detachment of volunteers "Botur" was formed in Yakutia, the publication also writes about the coastal detachment "Tiger", the Chuvash "Atal", the battalions "Alga" and "Timer" in Tatarstan, the company "Parma" and the battalion "Hammer" in the Perm Territory, the battalion named after Kuzma Minin in the Nizhny Novgorod region, motorized rifle battalion "Amur" by the name of the region. In the Leningrad region, the government announced the recruitment of artillery divisions "Nevsky" and "Ladoga", and in the Tyumen announced the formation of three divisions at once: "Tobol", "Taiga" and "Siberia". Bashkiria is preparing two motorized rifle battalions to be sent to war. Kursk, Omsk, Irkutsk and Chelyabinsk regions, as well as the Krasnodar Territory, also form detachments of "volunteers" to Ukraine.
The text clarifies that the Ministry of Defense is responsible for all “procedural formalities” in all regions: Russians sign contracts with the department for a period of several months with the possibility of extension and receive the status of “contract workers”.
In June, The Insider wrote about how men in Chechnya are forcibly sent to fight in Ukraine. There are almost no real volunteers left, and the security forces intimidate the residents, torture them and threaten them with criminal cases. At the same time, many agree to go to war in order to save their families from humiliation, and themselves from cases under terrorist articles and torture. Lawyers, human rights activists and families of Chechens forcibly sent to war said that there is no chance to refuse mobilization and only a few manage to escape from the republic. Even imams are used to send Chechens to war in Ukraine: they call on parishioners to join the Akhmat battalion right during the Friday sermon. Mercenaries for participation in the war are offered a salary of 50-60 thousand rubles. Any man aged 18-40 can sign up for Akhmat.
Despite the payments promised by the authorities, many of the “volunteers” end up in the war without supplies and money. Thus, volunteers from the Atal battalion, who were formed at the initiative of the head of Chuvashia, Oleg Nikolaev, to be sent to war in Ukraine, wrote a collective letter in which they accused the leadership of failing to keep promises. According to them, they never received the payments promised to them in the amount of 200,000 rubles and per diems in the amount of 2,000 rubles.